A Boarding School Facade
by Jooles
Summary: "Up for a game, a challenge?"
1. The Beginning: A new school and new fri...

**A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles***  
_  
disclaimer - usual stuff. I don't own Gundam_

**Chapter One**  
  
Quatre had been at St. Michael's School a month before Relena finally arrived. She hadn't been able to get to the school before then for reasons unknown to him. According to her, there had been some 'stuff going on in the Dorlian household'.   
  
When she finally did arrive, she did so making her usual trademark statement.  
  
Quatre had been out late with his new friends exploring the non-existent night life of the town thirty minutes walk away from St. Michael's. Needless to say Quatre had been disappointed. Sommerville was almost an exact mirror of his hometown Treventville. Definitely a ghost town. Duo had seemed to like it though. He'd exclaimed upon entering the town that he was going to 'leave the Maxwell mark come the end of the semester'.   
  
Quatre had laughed at that. He had been looking forward to introducing Relena to Duo, wondering what her reaction to his slightly 'eccentric' friend would be like. Then again, he wouldn't be surprised if she took it all in her stride. She had lived with the Dorlian family for over ten years after all.  
  
Quatre and his newly acquired group of friends arrived back at St. Michael's to find Relena's faded pink VW parked outside the main office. According to Quatre's watch, it was a little after 11 o'clock in the evening. If the night life had been so dull, what had he been doing for the last two hours??  
  
Quatre hurried to Relena's car and peered inside. Relena was curled up in the back seat with the tan pea coat Quatre had given her several years ago covering her small frame.  
  
"It's a girl!!" Duo remarked, cupping his hands as he pressed his face against the window.  
  
"No shit Maxwell!" Wufei snapped, pushing Duo aside. "Get away from there. Both of you. You'll scare her otherwise."  
  
"Wufei's concerned, for a girl," Duo teased, "when did this happen?"  
  
"Maxwell, shut it."   
  
"Oh please Wufei. You spend so much time acting like such a big tough 'chauvinist prick', and yet, here you are being all compassionate and considerate for the type of girl you waste no time dissing. Of course I'm going to take a hold of the opportunity to annoy you about it." Duo sneered.  
  
Quatre did not like the turn the evening was now at present taking.   
  
But, Relena being the dove that she often could be; that is when she felt like it, chose that very moment to awake from slumber. Now, most young women, when waking up in a deserted car park, and being faced with a group of strange and mostly unknown men would have screamed, yelled, run for their lives etcera etcera. Relena sat up quickly, looking as though she was about to make a run for it. But then she saw Quatre, and her panic-stricken face brightened into a what Duo later termed a 'dazzling smile'.  
  
"Quatre!" She pulled herself into the driver's seat and opened up the car door.  
  
Barreling out of the car and into his arms she gave him a much-needed reunion hug.  
  
Quatre's new friends stared at the two, dumb struck. Quatre hadn't told them once in the short month that they'd known him that he had a girl-friend. So, why did she look as though she fit the bill?  
  
Relena pulled herself out of Quatre's arms, taking a decent look at him.  
  
"You look okay to me," Relena looked Quatre up and down, scrutinizing his appearance. "But you've lost weight and you need a haircut. Don't they feed you here at the mighty 'St. Michael's'?"  
  
Duo snickered behind Quatre.  
  
Relena looked past Quatre and met a cocky pair of violet eyes. "Oh. You must be Duo," she said simply.  
  
"Oh no. I'm Wufei. That's Duo." Duo pointed to Wufei.  
  
Relena smiled. She knew Duo's game. She'd played it plenty of times back home whenever new kids and new teachers had arrived at school. It was an oldie but a goodie.  
  
"No," she smiled at Duo, letting him know that she wasn't completely clueless, "I'm pretty sure that you're Duo Maxwell. Tall, long braided brown hair, violet eyes, slightly cocky, never shuts up, will pull a prank whenever he gets a chance. Do you wish me to go on?"  
  
Duo gulped. Meeting a girl who had read his game and knew how to deal with him straight off was a rare find indeed.  
  
"I'm pretty sure, in fact, I'm pretty bang-on sure, that you 're the Duo Maxwell Quatre told me about. That is unless I'm in need of glasses and your hair is actually blond and eyes are actually blue." Relena paused a moment, letting Duo know that he could plead mercy whenever he felt like it. Now for the final little bit that would let him know that she wasn't one to trifle with, "I am usually right you know, Duo, and the times that I've been wrong have been few and far between. So, Duo Maxwell, pleased to meet you, I hope that we can become marvelous friends!" At the last bit, Relena stuck out her hand for Duo to shake.  
  
Duo finding himself under obligation, shook Relena's hand, and then did what he should have done at the start, "Pleasure to meet you Relena, I'm Duo Maxwell, and that's Wufei Chang, and that's Trowa Barton." He gestured to the Chinese boy not too far behind him, and the quiet, yet long-legged boy now leaning against Relena's VW.  
  
Duo turned to face Quatre and gestured at him in a peevish manner, "Quatre, what 's with you man? Couldn't you have at least warned us at least once in the past month that you had a girlfriend coming to visit?"  
  
Quatre actually sputtered. While Relena literally snorted... though didn't, because after all snorting is a very unladylike thing, and Relena would soon be under obligation to look quite the embodiment of a lady. Now was not the time, afterall, to start with such unladylike business, such as snorting was.  
  
"Relena, my girlfriend??" Quatre glanced at Relena, who was looking as equally miffed as he felt. "Duo, me and Relena are not like that. Oh, Allah, that's just....." Quatre couldn't quite finish the sentence, too put out to even put into words the images now running inexplicably through his head.  
  
Fortunately, Relena knew just what Quatre was trying to say. And she was the one who was better with words, "Duo, as much as I love Quatre, there's just no way we'd ever be anything like that. Right Quatre?"  
  
Quatre nodded slowly, still slightly dazed and disturbed by the insinuation of him and Relena being a couple.  
  
"What's so wrong with you two being 'together'" Duo emphasized 'together', reveling in the turn the evening had taken.  
  
Relena scowled.  
  
"Duo, me and Quatre wiped out any potentially romantic insinuations when we were say . . . um . . .six years old . . . and . . . eating each others snot." Relena cringed at the last part. But it was true. And she knew that it would shut Duo up. They had nonetheless eaten each others snot. Only once, and just to see if it tasted any different from their own. For the pair of six year olds, they had sadly, been in the wrong with their assumptions, finding that their snot had tasted basically the same.  
  
Quatre looked sharply at Relena. He could feels his cheeks burning up as his newly acquired friends looked at him in now not only amusement but in pity. Relena and his friendship was bound to have its ups and downs more than ever now, especially if she planned to carry on divulging embarassing stories while she attended St. Michael's.  
  
Catching 'the look', Relena herself blushed. "I'm afraid, that I may have said too much."  
  
Duo nodded, even Wufei and Trowa nodded in agreement. "Listen Duo, me and Quatre are friends, really really good friends, and we've got a thoroughly long and boring history that none of you will find in the least bit interesting. But just for the record, I'll just make one thing crystal clear for you and everybody else that has an interest in the topic. Me and Quatre have never been a couple, and will never be a couple. Neither of us plan on ruining our friendship in the near future. Capisce?"  
  
Duo shuddered. He wished he'd never brought the subject up.  
  
Quatre sensing that this was the right moment to formally introduce Relena quit feeling sorry for himself.  
  
"Relena Dorlain, meet Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton and Wufei Chang" Quatre gestured at each of the boys.  
  
Relena poked Quatre in the ribs gently, "Finally, you get your Winner act together, and introduce me like you were taught when your folks sent you to Madame Manners all those years ago!"  
  
"Relena!" Quatre said sharply.  
  
"Oh, sorry Quatre, couldn't help it," she blushed again, "I haven't been able to tease anybody I actually like for a month. Everybody at home just looks at me like I'm buck naked or something whenever I try and tease a little..." Relena said, rejoicing in the moment of self-pity.  
  
Duo smirked at the 'buck naked' bit, and was about to say something about it, when he noticed Quatre's usually placid blue eyes turn a stormy blue.  
  
"Hey, you were the one who didn't show up on the first day." Quatre said softly.  
  
Relena looked up at Quatre, "Oh yeah, sorry about that. Dad had a heart attack. Mum and him had to stay in the city while I watched over things at home."  
  
Quatre smiled softly at Relena, "Yeah, I rung round a bit, and Hilde told me about the whole episode. You okay?"  
  
"Well, I'm here aren't I?" Relena responded, feeling slightly better now that that little tid-bit of information was out of the way. "Dad's fine now...mum's looking after things properly. And I hired a new manager whose totally bril'! You'd be proud Quatre."  
  
Quatre frowned. "I am proud Relena."  
  
Relena blushed. "Okay, enough with the mush!" She waved her arms around, dusting what remnants of sap there were into the twilight bliss.  
  
Duo laughed. "Relena, you and me are going to get along just fine. This place has been needing a dove."  
  
"A dove?" Relena asked incredulously.  
  
"Yeah, a dove. We're all a bunch of ravens, and all the other namby pamby type of people that attend here. We need someone like you to brighten up this otherwise droll place."  
  
"Gees Maxwell, that's a compliment and a half!" Wufei snorted.  
  
"What can I say, I like to flatter." Duo smiled. He had been serious about the dove bit. Relena looked like the type of person who could brighten any place up.  
  
"Oh, come off it now," Relena cut in, "Can we go inside, it's freezing out here?"  
  
Quatre helped Relena with her satchel and backpack. "It's too late to get you into your dorm, you can crash in mine for tonight."  
  
Duo, Wufei and Trowa followed behind the two friends as they made their way to Quatre's dormitory.  
  
"And they said they were 'just friends'!" Duo exclaimed.  
  
****  
  
Relena had crashed in Quatre's room, falling slave to the sandman almost as soon as her golden halo of hair and head hit the pillow. Quatre's eyes turned soft once again at his friend's motions. He was very protective of her, and was glad that her introduction to his friends, and particularly Duo had gone so well.  
  
Grabbing a clean pair of boxers and a tee-shirt, Quatre changed in the bathroom, then headed to the lounge, where he planned to crash on what was his ratty excuse for a couch for the night.  
  
But, Allah had played him an unlucky hand. Duo was sprawled out on the couch, waiting for Quatre, his twenty questions already in mind.  
  
"So, Quatre old buddy, you didn't happen to mention, once in the past month that you had a best friend, that was like a 'total babe', and that this best friend of yours was actually planning to attend school here. Why is that now?"  
  
Quatre sighed. May as well get it over with now.  
  
"Relena's been my best friend forever Duo. I didn't mention her coming here, because I wasn't sure if she'd actually show up. You will have noticed that she's a month late."  
  
Duo clenched his jaw for moment, then remembering something, unwound himself from his lazy position on the couch. "Heero's meant to be back in the morning. I don't want to be anywhere near here when he gets in."  
  
"Excuse me," Quatre spluttered.  
  
"Well, you know what he's like after he gets back from visiting his family. He's all moody and stuff." Duo whined, grimacing at the same time as he recalled his last encounter with Heero when he'd returned from a weekend with the Yuy family. Needless to say, it had not been a pleasant encounter. In fact a very painful one on Duo's side.  
  
Quatre smiled slightly. He was fortunate enough to have a relatively pain-free relationship with his room mate. Unlike Duo who went round practically asking for trouble. Particularly when it came to the likes of Heero, who was already as serious as a stiffly pressed strait suit. He could be murderous to deal with when agitated by what he commonly termed 'annoying persons'.  
  
Flopping down on the couch, Quatre closed his eyes, glad that the sleep he'd yearned for for hours now was finally coming his way. His last thoughts, as he drifted off to sleep were that of wonder and whether Heero would be angry that they had had a girl in their dormitory . . .  
  
****  
  
"What the hell is that?!"  
  
Quatre was pulled out of what had been a rather lovely dream, to the grazed voice of Heero Yuy. Quatre squinted one eye open, then after observing a very ticked off Heero, pretended to be still sound asleep. He even faked a smallish snore, to make his feigned sleep seem more genuine.  
  
Heero, unaware of Quatre's attempts to ignore his room mate, shook Quatre awake.  
  
"What, Heero?" Quatre muttered, wanting to return to that pleasant dream he'd been having.  
  
"What the hell is that 'thing' doing in our dorm?" A furious looking Heero questioned.  
  
"What thing Heero?" Quatre decided to play dumb.  
  
"The girl on your bed." Heero gestured, starting to get frustrated with Quatre's nonchalant attitude towards the obvious intruder.  
  
"You're a smart person Heero, work it out." Quatre flopped back into the couch, placing a cushion over his head, and effectively blocking the furiously sputtering Heero Yuy out.  
  
"Uh, uh. No way Quatre. You are not getting out of this that easily."  
  
Before Heero could say anymore, he was interrupted by a voice that Duo would later liken to being 'as musical as a woodwind quartet'.  
  
"Sorry for overstaying my welcome Quatre," Relena appeared at the doorway pulling on one of his old Treventville sweatshirts. It hung on her small frame. She eyed Heero wearily. "And sorry for making you . . . uneasy . . ."  
  
Quatre sat up. There was no chance of a sleep-in now.  
  
"And who are you?" Heero questioned, acting as though he had every right in the world to know.  
  
"Relena Dorlian. And yourself?" Relena glared across at Heero, daggers drawn.  
  
"Heero Yuy, haven't you heard of me?" He asked glaring now not only at Relena, but at Quatre also.  
  
Relena smirked. "Ahhh, Heero Yuy. Now that you mention it, Quatre did say something or rather about you." Heero squirmed. He didn't like the way Relena had said 'something or rather'. "What do you mean something or rather?"  
  
Relena squinted, trying to remember just what it was exactly Quatre had written about Heero in his letter to her: -'Heero's pretty withdrawn Relena. I like him despite the fact that he bites your head off if you try and start up a conversation with him. I was feeling homesick a few days ago, and though I didn't say anything I think he knew. I'd been missing home so much that I'd started to fall behind with my chem homework. Anyway, I was feeling so down and everything, I was moping about the place so bad, you would have a go at me if you knew just how sad and sorry I was looking. Anyway out of the blue, Heero practically bursts into my room, grabs my chem workbook and says in as few words as possible, to quit feeling sorry for myself, that we're all in the same boat, and that he'll help me catch up on chem homework if I quit looking like I lost my best friend (which by the way had to contain myself at not angrily replying that in effect I had - after all you're not here). In his own way, Heero did me the world of good that day. . . I know you'd like him Relena. Even though he's so different to you, to anyone I know for that matter, I think that he'd be another person for you to trust. Sometimes I'm not sure how you manage keeping all the secrets that you do . . . and so well . . .'  
  
"Well?" Heero inquired.  
  
"Just that you were 'trustworthy'," Relena said simply. She didn't want to get into an argument with Heero. She had other things going on that she had to worry about. She didn't plan or count on adding 'Heero Yuy' to that already busy head space.  
  
"Trustworthy?" Heero tried the word out on his lips. No one had ever called him 'trustworthy' before. He'd expected Relena to say something, anything but 'trustworthy'. But it was a compliment, and he accepted it as graciously as he knew how.  
  
Quatre expected an all-out battle between Relena and Heero. He knew that Heero didn't like to be psycho-analysed. Especially by a girl. And a girl that was a stranger nevertheless. But no, Heero simply nodded and muttered a typical and indistinguishable "hn . . ."   
  
Quatre assumed that was Heero's way of accepting a compliment.  
  
Relena grabbed her satchel and backpack and pecked Quatre on the cheek. "I'll catch up with you later Quatre. I really should find out where I'm expected to live while I'm here. Wouldn't want to stay where I'm not wanted," she glanced in Heero's direction, "if you know what I mean."  
  
"You're always welcome here Relena," Quatre said, then seeing Heero's scowl whispered in her ear "at least you're always welcome when I'm here."  
  
"Thank you Quatre."   
  
And with that she was gone.  
  
"Why'd you have to be like that with her Heero?" Quatre questioned his room mate. He had held his friend in quite high esteem before that whole incident.  
  
Heero shrugged.  
  
"Typical" Quatre muttered.  
  
He grabbed his pillow and slammed the door of his room, flopping onto his bed making plans for a long and healthy sleep-in. Heero would just have to mull over Relena's visit by himself.  
  
Chapter Four  
  
Relena's move into the girls dorm went off relatively without a hitch. She didn't have much to move into her room, unlike many of the other girls who were already living at St. Michael's. She'd never possessed much. Just the required amount of clothes, treasured possessions and books she felt she could not live without.  
  
Settling into the St. Michael's school life was another thing though. She'd had to sit through a two hour reprimand by the school's principal regarding why she'd missed the first month of school.   
  
"you've missed too much school, your scholarship could have disappeared if you hadn't shown up a day earlier, you'll never catch up, how can you expect to do well now?"   
  
Relena practically fell out of her chair when he finally shut up.  
  
She'd been disappointed upon finding out that she and Quatre shared only one class, that being a music period, which she'd chosen instead of study period.   
  
She'd was bummed even more so when she discovered that Heero Yuy was in not only her political science class, but her history, legal studies, english and maths with stats class. She could have kicked those demon gods who'd played such a cruel and fateful trick on her.  
  
Dropping into the seat of her last class that day, political science, she was faced with yet another demon. Her teacher, felt that upon seeing her records from Treventville and the honorable and astounding references that they had given her in reference to the subject, that she should sit a 'little test' to see where her knowledge was ranked in the class.  
  
Apparently her knowledge of the subject area was equal to that of Heero Yuy's, who just happened to be top of this particular class.  
  
Relena could feel him glaring at her. She'd pissed him right off that morning. Now she'd stolen his precious spotlight. Not that he'd seemed to enjoy it much anyway.  
  
"Damn you demons of fate . . ." Relena mumbled to herself, as she doodled on her ringbinder.  
  
Heero Yuy had taken up vacancy in Relena's headspace. Now, along with worrying about her foster father Frankie Dorlian and whether the gas station would be all right, she had to worry about ticking Heero Yuy off. Then there was the problem that Elena Dorlian's cafe was having a bout of slow business, and when Relena had been doing the books while they'd been in the city, she'd been saddened to say that things did not look good for the Dorlian household.   
  
Then there was Milliardo, and the small matter of the Cinq kingdom.  
  
If anyone, and Relena meant anyone, found out where she was, not only was she a goner, but same for the unfortunate soul who had found themselves to be friends with her.  
  
But no, that worry Relena could push aside.  
  
She didn't have to worry about Milliardo for a while yet. At least not until he was out of Westpoint and up the ranks far enough for them to have the artillery power to get back into Cinq.  
  
And until that day, Relena would wait patiently and carry on with the normal little life that she had built for herself with the Dorlian family.  
  
But, as Relena had muttered before, 'damn those demons of fate . . .'  
  
****  
  
Political science had been absolutely murderous. Not the class itself. Relena had always enjoyed that subject in particular. It was the little run-in that she had with Heero afterwards that had made her dub political science and any other classes that she had to share with Heero Yuy 'murderous classes'.  
  
She was packing her ringbinder into her satchel when Heero Yuy plopped down in the chair beside her.  
  
"Oh, hi Heero," she mumbled, struggling with the zip on her satchel.  
  
"Relena," he regarded her, 'couldn't she do such a simple task, such as zipping up her satchel?'  
  
"There a problem?" She asked, smiling as she successfully zipped the satchel up.  
  
"No, not at all." Heero replied, his voice just lined with irony.  
  
"Quit the sarcasm Heero. You and I both know that you can't handle." Relena replied icily.  
  
"Handle what, Relena?" Cobalt blue eyes were now icily eyeing a very weary looking Relena.  
  
"The competition."  
  
"You, competition? Please!" Heero responded, sounding every bit the snob she had suspected him of being.  
  
"Would you quit being such a snob, please." Relena snapped. She picked up her satchel and prepared to customarily stomp her way back to her new dormitory. (Stomping is something many teenage girls revel in when peeved. Obviously, Relena was of no exception.) However, Heero grabbed a hold of Relena's satchel, motioning for her to stop with her little 'stomping off' charade.  
  
"Quit it Relena. I hate when teenage girls stomp off just to make the guy feel guilty. That stuff doesn't work with me." Heero glared at Relena.   
  
Relena did something she wasn't used to doing. She gave plight to Heero's whims. "Whatever Heero. Just say whatever it is you want to say," Heero's eyes widened in surprise, "I know you're dying to!" Relena said sarcastically.  
  
Heero smirked. "I just wanted to let you know that if you think you've got it easy in this class you're dead wrong."  
  
Relena perked up a bit. Was he challenging her? Oh, she did love a challenge!  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" She inquired.  
  
"I saw how you practically snoozed through last period. Don't expect to come first in this class and not work for it." Heero rehearsed.  
  
What was he, some sort of goody-good?? Relena shuddered. And he'd had such the bad-boy with the smarts appeal . . .  
  
"What's your problem Heero, can't hack the competition?" She sneered. Relena couldn't believe it. She actually sneered. Where she came from, sneering, was just plain wrong. And so far, since she'd met Heero Yuy, she'd been breaking all the lovely etiquette rules that she'd learnt so avidly when she was still in the Cinq Kingdom.  
  
"Whatever," Heero shrugged. "I figured I should warn you though."  
  
"Well thank you Heero. Do you want a prize for that?" Relena threw her arms up in the air, her ashy-blond hair effectively thrashed into Heero's face, which was positioned just a little too closely to Relena's own. Well, for her liking anyway.  
  
Heero sighed in frustration.  
  
He removed himself from his seat. "I was just offering some advice. And that's all that I was offering. You can take it or leave it. See if I care." And with that he left Relena sitting by herself in the now empty political science classroom. Alone with herself, and alone with her thoughts.  
  
In all his dealings with the female species, Heero had never been quite so easily affected and in such a negative way before. Relena's over-confident, over-smart, and completely sure of herself attitude was in fact getting right under his skin. And what was his effect on her? Did she even have an opinion on him?   
  
And the answer to that was, yes. Relena did have an opinion on Heero. But not a very pleasant one at that particular moment. And not one that you can talk about without using a few shady words. So, with the battle lines drawn, and the two fateful persons at odds with each other, a rather odd friendship was formed.   
  
But not quite yet.  
  
Because in real life things don't happen with the snap of a finger.  
  
Relena planned on staying mad at Heero for at least a week. Then, after struggling with the catch-up work in some of her classes, she planned on approaching him. He did seem to know his stuff. Till then, Relena planned to treat him with a certain cool detachment.  
  
And Heero planned on treating Relena exactly the same way.  
  
****  
  
Several days later Relena had officially settled into St. Michael's school. Relena had spent Thursday afternoon officially catching up with Quatre. He'd heard from Hilde about her foster father, Frankie Dorlian's, heart attack, but he hadn't know the details of it. Relena had obliged him, filling him in on what she'd been doing the past month. Which in Relena's opinion wasn't really that interesting. All she'd done was manage Frankie's gas-station and Elena's cafe, the 'Dorlian Diner'. It was hard going, managing the two businesses at the same time. But luckily, she'd found Rashid, Quatre's former mentor in need of a job. He'd done wonders for the business so far. Relena was hoping that Frankie would keep Rashid on even after he finally returned to work. It was the stress endued from running such a poor paying job, that had brought about the heart attack in the first place. Well, that was what Relena believed anyway.  
  
Relena often pondered how ironic her life was. It was amazing how over ten years ago she'd been living in her parents palace in the Cinq Kingdom, attending etiquette classes and leading the life of a privileged little princess. Now, at the age of seventeen, Relena lived with the Dorlian family who were nowhere near well off in the anonymous hick town of Treventville. At least it was 'anonymous'. In Treventville she was known as just another hick-town girl who would probably grow up and get married to some hick-town boy, and have lots and lots of babies. But these plans (which Relena planned on defying anyhow) quite rapidly changed when she won the academic scholarship to St. Michael's. And, bless Quatre's Allah, she did, numerous times. She'd actually been distraught when the school had first contacted her letting her know that she'd won the scholarship. After all, she'd grown accustomed to being disappointed, and she hadn't been counting on winning the scholarship. But, apparently, the heavens did like her, and now, a month into the school year, she was finally attending the 'mighty St. Michael's'.  
  
She'd been so busy trying to catch up on a month's worth of schoolwork that Relena hadn't been able to talk to her best friend for more then a few snippets of a few minutes since she'd arrived at the school. But, after struggling with her maths with stats catch-up work for an hour that day, Relena had officially given up, deciding that catching up with Quatre would be a useful means of procrastinating even more so.  
  
"Thanks Quatre, I needed that," Relena told her friend as he helped her into her tan pea coat. She'd looked at her watch only moments before and realised that she was going to be late for her first dorm meeting.  
  
" 's okay Relena," he gingerly straightened her coat, frowning at the way she'd mismatched the buttons with the holes of her coat.  
  
Relena glanced down at the coat. "Oh, woopsie."  
  
" 's okay, queen klutz. I'll see you later," Quatre gestured as she made a move to exit the dorm, "Oh, and Relena, do finish your stats work. You really should ask Heero for help. He's a whiz at that stuff, you know?"  
  
Relena scrunched her face. There was no way that she was going to ask for Heero's help. At least not yet. She had another day to go (in her opinion) until she thought it right for her to ask for help. Besides she had better things to do then some lousy stats work. Things like attending her first dorm meeting. And she didn't plan on being late. The reprimand she'd received from the principal had been enough, in Relena's opinion to outlast any future reprimands she was to receive that school year.  
  
Striding out, confident about making it to the meeting on time, Relena hadn't counted on stumbling into Heero Yuy.  
  
"Oh, sorry," Relena muttered to the anonymous person, trying to untangle her arms from around their waist.  
  
"If I didn't think that you were still mad at me, I'd say that you ran into me on purpose." Heero Yuy grouched at Relena, whose facial features glared at him incredulously. How dare he suggest such a thing? And why was he admitting at making her angry the other day? She'd believed that he was completely ignorant to the idea of himself ever being in the wrong.  
  
"So, you're admitting that you were a jerk the other day, then?"   
  
Heero shook his head. "I didn't say anything of the sort. I was just commenting on the coincidence of you and me running into each other."  
  
Relena started to retaliate, but Heero carried on walking in the direction that he'd been heading in before Relena had so rudely walked into him. Poor Relena was left standing in the middle of the corridor looking like a fish out of water.  
  
"Hey, Heero," she called after him.  
  
Heero turned around, impatience just flashing in his oh-so-deep cobalt blue eyes.   
  
"What do you want Relena?"  
  
Relena blushed, why had she asked for Heero to stop in the first place? . . . Oh, that was right, it wasn't because she wanted to drown in those dangerously mocking cobalt blue eyes for a while longer. No, it was so that she could break her five day rule, and ask for Heero's help with her maths with stats catch-up work on the fourth day instead.  
  
"I need your help," Relena said. "Maths with stats. Quatre said you're a whiz at it."  
  
Heero frowned. She wanted his help. He'd been under the impression that she hadn't wanted anything to do with him. Especially after their little tirade in the political science room a few days ago. But, he was interested in this girl, and not just for the reason that she was obviously his equal when it came to the academic area. Nor did his interest have anything to do with the fact that she wasn't too bad looking. It was something deeper, more personal, but also at the same time, having to do very much so with a business deal he'd made just a few days ago. And if his suspicions and his clients were correct in their assumptions then his interest wasn't unjustified.  
  
"You want help. I can give you help."  
  
Relena's face broke into a smile. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. You don't know how much of a life saver you are!!" She grasped his right arm, which hung stiffly at his side. Heero squirmed on the inside. He was unfamiliar and in particular uncomfortable with how close she was standing to him.  
  
Relena, seemed to sense his discomfort and pulled instinctively away. "Where should I meet you?"  
  
"At my dorm after dinner." Heero replied.  
  
Relena nodded. She wanted to complain. She had been at his and Quatre's dorm just that afternoon and she had started to get sick of the ten minute trek between the boys and the girls boarding quarters. However, she wasn't one to refuse the help of an obviously educated handsome young man, who though seeming unwilling to help, was going to do so anyway.  
  
"Well, I'll see you after dinner then." Relena responded to Heero's muteness. Moving away from him, she waved as he turned to walk away. He raised an eyebrow. Heero Yuy was not into the whole 'waving' deal. It was just so poofter like. And Heero Yuy was no poofter.  
  
****  
  
Relena had made it to the dorm meeting in time. She'd been formally introduced to the girls boarding at the school. Her room mate Dorothy Catalonia had even shown he around the remaining area of the girls boarding quarters. Not that there had been much to show anyhow.  
  
Dorothy seemed nice enough, although she did have a certain detachment about her that made Relena uneasy when around her. She'd have to be extra careful with her goings on. If anyone found out where Relena was really from, and who Relena really was, then she'd be dust.  
  
Relena always looked forward to dinnertime. It was at this time that she'd get to talk to Duo. She found herself reveling in Duo's easygoing nature. He was so easy to be around, and he didn't ask a whole heap from her. All, he required of her company was a companion who listened quite openly to his jokes and stories, and laughed when the punch line came about. He'd found also, in the likes of Relena that when the others weren't around he could confide in her a few of the internal scars he still carried from his days before he lived at Maxwell Church. In a major confession he'd told her about how he'd managed to get into such a prestigious and wealthy school, such as the likes of St. Michael's. When the priest raising him had died, he'd left in his will a trust fund that paid for his education and living expenses until he was twenty-five.  
  
It was funny the people that Quatre had met at St. Michael's and had come to call friends. Relena had always thought that she had a pretty dismal excuse for a life story, but Quatre's new friends had taught her that there were others out there worse off than her. Duo, though he would never admit it, had had it just as hard as she had.  
  
Duo commented to Quatre and the others while waiting for Relena at the dinner table, that Thursday evening on how Relena spent a lot of time listening to them all talk about their lives, but when asked about her own, would change the subject.  
  
"She's always been like that Duo. I wouldn't bother trying to drag information out of her. She'll tell you stuff when she wants to, or at least when she feels that she can trust you." Quatre sighed, playing with the uncooked piece of meat on his plate. He didn't want to offend Duo, especially since he and Relena had seemed to have hit off so well. But, it was the truth. Relena didn't trust peopl easily.  
  
"Do you mean to say that she doesn't trust me?" Duo fumed. If Quatre was suggesting that the girl he'd told his miserable excuse for a life story to didn't trust him then he was definitely about to bare a grudge. Not only with Relena, but with the sorry bugger (in this case, Quatre) who implied that she didn't trust anybody.  
  
Before Duo could prod Quatre for more information, Relena placed her tray of food down on the table. Duo poked at Relena's salad with his fork. "Lena, you don't eat enough. No wonder you're so thin."  
  
Relena frowned. What was with Duo? He usually welcomed her to the dinner table with open arms and prank of some sort. He'd never lectured her before.  
  
"I'm fine Duo. Just not that hungry I suppose."  
  
Taking her seat, she started to pick away at her salad, stealing a glance at Quatre who amazingly enough was trying his hardest to avoid looking at her. She knew at that moment that before she'd arrived, they'd been discussing her.  
  
"What'd Quatre say about me?" She asked bluntly.  
  
Duo's mouthful of meat sputtered onto the once-clean table. "How could you imply that Quatre's been saying stuff about you?"  
  
Relena shrugged, "I know a guilty person when I see one."  
  
An uncomfortable silence ensued. Wufei picked up his tray and while leaving the table, mumbled something under his breath about Duo and Quatre being stupid bakas.  
  
"Do you trust me Relena?" Duo asked as frankly as possible.  
  
Relena squinted at him. She'd expected something worst. Something like who she really was, where she really came from. She'd suspected that her cover had been blown. How and why, she wasn't sure. But whenever anybody questioned her about her past, Relena almost always automatically believed that they were doing so because they knew who she really was. But obviously, Quatre had kept his word, just like he had for over ten years and counting now. He hadn't told any of his new found friends about the true identity of his best friend. Glancing at Quatre, she smiled slightly, letting him see the relief in her cerulean blue eyes.  
  
"I suppose so Duo. I haven't known you long enough to decide for sure. But, as I said when I first met you, I think we're going to be marvelous friends." Relena hoped that the 'marvelous friends' bit would satisfy Duo's qualms for the time-being.  
  
Duo studied Relena. There was something she wasn't telling him. Actually, there was something she wasn't telling everyone. Despite this, it was obvious that whatever it was, it meant a lot to her. And Duo figured that when she was ready, however long it would take, she would tell him and everyone else just what it was that she was hiding.  
  
Dinner was a rather quiet affair after Duo's outburst and Relena's correcting of Duo's assumptions. She drifted to the library after dinner, in search of a book she'd forgotten to bring with her when she'd left Treventville earlier on in the week.  
  
Holding the book close to her heart, it symbolised the link she felt with it. She took out her first book, 'The Complete and Unabridged History of the Peacecraft Family, the Cinq Kingdom's Royal Family' from the Treventville library. She realised it was probably a tad risqué getting the book out, but it was probably her only connection with her now deceased family.  
  
Heero was expecting her, and she didn't want to make him angry with her. He had, despite holding her in evident dislike, agreed to help her with her stats work. And she was not one to ask for something; then when receiving it not see the true value of the gift and use it accordingly.  
  
So, it was with a heavy heart, Relena stood outside Heero's dorm that mild Thursday night. Heero let her in to his and Quatre's dorm, and was even polite enough to offer her a drink. They'd gotten through roughly two-thirds of the catch-up work when Quatre arrived back from wherever it was he'd spent the last couple of hours.  
  
"Relena, what are you doing here?" Quatre asked, surprise evidently lingering on his face.  
  
Relena, still in study mode, looked at Quatre with glassy eyes. She'd almost had the answer, moreover, she'd been right on the edge of completing the equation. But Quatre's entrance had interrupted her figuring out of the equation.  
  
"Heero's helping me catch-up." Relena told Quatre. There was no way she'd be able to figure out the equation now. Her head ached slightly. She really had been working too hard.  
  
Quatre smiled, and in a moment of boldness, winked at Heero.  
  
Heero unmistakably flinched. "don't think anything of the sort Winner. There's no way I'd be interested in her," Heero pointed at Relena as though she was some sort of dirty thing. He hadn't been coupled with anybody of the opposite sex in years now. The reality was that everybody at St. Michael's was terrified of being within ten feet of him. And what Quatre had just implied made Heero furious. He was answerable to no one. Relena whatever-her-face included.  
  
Heero stood up quickly, getting as far away from Relena as possible. She looked up at him questioningly. A weary look of anguish flashing in her pretty blue eyes. Getting herself together, Relena packed up her books. Heero mentally chided himself. He'd been too rash, and ended up blowing his chances of getting close to the girl. He wasn't sure if he was angry at himself because he'd potentially lost her friendship by slighting her. Or if he was angry at himself for almost blowing his own cover.  
  
Relena, in her uncertainty, was practically throwing her gear into her satchel, trying to bolt form Heero's and Quatre's dorm as soon as possible. In her rush, the book she'd gotten out from the library fell out of her satchel.  
  
Heero picked it up, believing after making and idiot of himself, that he had to redeem himself in front of her at all costs.  
  
"You like these types of books?" Heero questioned, mildly surprised to find her reading that sort of literature.  
  
Relena shrugged. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? Couldn't he take a hint?  
  
"Well?" Heero prodded again. If she admitted to liking books about the Cinq Kingdom then he had a reason to continue with his prodding of Relena. He did need to get paid, and soon also.  
  
Relena snatched the book out of Heero's hand, her fingers lightly grazing his own as she pulled it out of his grasp. "Does it matter what I enjoy reading Heero? I think not. You're helping me with my stats work, not with my selection of plausible literature."  
  
Damn, she'd avoided answering the question. She'd gotten the better of him.  
  
Then she'd had the gall to peck Quatre on the cheek before she slammed the door to his dormitory.  
  
What was it about her that got under his skin so much?  
  
Whatever it was, Heero was going to find out. As uncomfortable as his next encounter with her was bound to make him. He just had to know what it was she was hiding.  
  
****  
  
more coming soon. Thanks for taking the time to read


	2. A discussion, dance and disaster

**A Boarding School Facade**** -_by Jooles*_**

_Disclaiemr - I don't own Gundamwing blah blah blah_

**Chapter Two**** - _A discussion, a dance and a disaster_**

****

_"When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees."_

_-Kanneth Kaunda_

A/N  Finally some action:  Heero and Relena argue some more! Oh, don't you just love a jolly confrontation?!

Relena refused to speak to Heero for the week following their marginally small spat.  He'd been such a blatant ass, the way he'd degraded her in front of Quatre.  It wasn't so much the degrading bit that bothered her so much, she had suffered much worse with other people in the past.  It was more the fact that he didn't see anything wrong with his acting like a jerk.  At least with most normal guys, they'd admit that they were jerks straight after the incident, in an attempt to redeem themselves with their chosen woman.  And that was just it!  Relena was not Heero's chosen woman.  Actually  she was furthest from being anything of the kind.  They had done nothing but argue since the day they'd first met.  Not even once had they shared any special 'moment'.  Yet, fate kept throwing the two together, as if trying to tell the two something, that they didn't know about themselves.  And there was the small matter of a certain amount of 'chemistry' being displayed between the two.  Quatre had dubiously noted how good the two looked together when he'd winked at Heero the other night.  But then Heero had been an idiot and acted as though she were a germ, a virus, some sort of bacteria or something like that.  In as few spoken words as possible he'd blown it.  Relena and Heero may not have shared any special 'moments', but Relena had; before Heero's idiotic behaviour, begun to think that she could possibly open up to him.  She had started to feel guilty about constantly dumping her troubles with Quatre, and even worse perpetually bottling them up.  But no, Heero had to go and be a jerkoff, a dumbkoff, whatever.  It'd take a while for Relena to learn to trust him.  That is, if the two ever got round to actually making up.

****

It was another sunny day at St. Michael's and Quatre, Duo and Relena had succeeded in wagging their classes that period.  Relena was wagging physical education, while Duo and Quatre had decided to skip biology.  Sitting outside under one of the school's oak trees, the three new found friends soaked in the sunlight, contented to take a break from not only studying, but their own personal worries.  Quatre sat placidly against the tree trunk, playing with various blades of grass, while Relena laid sprawled out on her back imagining what each cloud in the sky above them represented.  Duo, comfortably leaned back on one elbow and was trying to get Relena to join in his and Quatre's conversation by lightly tapping her leg with his foot.

"Ahh, Duo, don't!'  Relena growled.

"Come on Lena, I want your opinion on this,"  Duo chided.  His foot trailed a line upwards to her side, where he gave her a very gentle prod.  

Relena howled.  She was after all a very ticklish person.

"Quit it Duo!"  Relena gasped in between guffawing breaths.

This only motioned for Duo to continue.  Relena sat up.  "Okay, okay, what were you and Quatre talking about?"  She said, trying to look serious and stern, yet having no such luck, what with her hair being so mussed and blades of grass sticking out.

"We were just talking about Heero,"  Duo said looking slightly amused at Relena's muddled appearance.

"What about Heero?"  Relena said flatly.

"You know Lena, how he's so 'I'm so serious, and perfect at what I do.  And you're all annoying little things that I wish I could trample, or better yet, kill!'  You know what I mean Lena?"  Duo gestured, pretending like he was the boy himself.

Relena stared at Duo.   Did he really want her opinion on Heero?  Did he even know what he was asking?  She could go on and on for hours about how stuck up and stiff and tight-ass like Heero Yuy was.  Did he really want to listen to her talk about how pissed off she was with him?

"Well Lena?"  Duo prodded.

"I think he's a ten tonne jerk-off who needs a good old-fashioned spanking!"  Relena admitted.  She silently thought to herself, that he was all those hateful things that she'd been mulling him to be the past few days, as well as being incredibly handsome, incredibly smart, and definitely not incredible boyfriend material.

"Okay then."  Duo laughed, "I take it he's gotten to you?"  

Relena shrugged.  Did she really want to discuss what Heero had more-or-less said with Duo?  Not really.  She'd rather just keep her short-comings and Heero's dumb ass behaviour to herself, and Quatre also.  She shot Quatre a warning look, letting him know that she'd skin him right there and then if he even breathed a word of what had passed between the two last week.

"Can we change the topic already?"  Relena asked.  She rolled onto her side, displaying her disinterest and dislike of the current topic of conversation.

Duo shrugged, and then smirked as he thought of an interesting topic of conversation to bring up.

"What are you up to Duo Maxwell?" Relena suspiciously asked her friend.

"So Lena, tell me are you going to the dance this weekend?"  Duo asked, mischief mercilessly sparkling in his violet eyes.

Relena looked startled.  She'd remembered Dorothy and her friends mentioning something about a dance, but she'd honestly hadn't know that it was on this weekend.

Duo noticed Relena's vaguely panic-stricken face.  "Don't tell me you forgot about the dance Relena?"  Duo asked unable to hide his amusement.

Quatre cut in, "I can't believe you forgot about the dance, Relena!  It's all anybody seems to talk about these days..."  Quatre smiled fondly at his best friend who he thought of more as a sister.

Relena suddenly found the blade of grass she'd been playing with to be of particular interest, staring at it as though it was a masterpiece art work.

"Well beat me senseless Lena, I've gotta say you're probably the only girl at this whole damned school that's forgotten the dance!"  Duo observed.  He glanced at Quatre, who looked equally as amused.

"I can't help it!"  Relena groaned, trying to hide the blush she knew was evading her cheeks.  "I remember Dorothy and the others saying someting about a dance.  I just didn't realise it was this weekend."

"Gees girl!  You're one of a kind!"  Duo laughed, leaning over to gently tickle her foot.

"Eugh!  Duo don't!  I mean, what normal seventeen year old girl forgets about the social event of the year?"  She buried her face in her hands.  Looking up at her two friends she said, "You must think I'm completely deranged or something!" 

Quatre shook his head.  "Relena, I thought you were deranged before you forgot about the dance!"

Duo grinned at his friend, "Point for Quatre!  Good one man!"

"Quit it you two!  If I'm so deranged, what are you doing here with me, eh?"  She prodded Duo with her foot.  "Eh?"

Duo and Quatre shrugged.  There was no stopping her when she was like this.

"That's what I thought.  You shouldn't complain.  Instead be glad that I haven't gone on and on like all the other girls at our school.  Actually Quatre, you should be thanking your Allah, and Duo you should be thanking your God."

Duo smiled sadly at Relena, "I don't believe in God, Relena."

"Oh Duo,"  she said sadly as the conversation took a different turn of topic, "we should all have something to believe in.  Whether it be God, Allah, Buddha, or ourselves."

"Well in that case Lena, I'll vouch for believing in myself,"  Duo mumbled, rolling onto his side.  "Now, let me tell you this joke I heard the other day.  You guys will love it!"

Relena rolled her eyes as Duo started to retell the joke he'd heard a few days ago.  Predictably, surely enough, the three were crying tears of laughter by the end of the tale.

It was sometimes of the highest beneficiary having friends like Quatre and Duo who made Relena laugh not only at inanimate and stupid things; but also at herself.  She needed to have friends like them around sometimes.  They stopped her from dwelling on issues she would have easily and unavoidably dwelled on much longer if her friend's hadn't torn her attention away from her otherwise morbid thoughts.

And she was glad that, however embarrassing it had been for her forgetting about the upcoming dance, that her friends had reminded her about it.

Now, she joined the rest of the female population at St. Michael's in search and want of a dress to wear.  Bummer.

****

Relena left Quatre and Duo shortly afterwards, feeling slightly agitated.  Seating herself near a window that had a marvelous view of St. Michael's sprawling grounds, she gazed out the window, her attention elsewhere.  Her teacher, Mr Marlborough noticed Relena's unusual silence in a subject where she had regularly taken part in class discussions since starting at the school.

"Relena,"  Mr Marlborough called her to his attention mid way through the class.

Relena pulled her gaze away from the grounds outside, fixing her attention on her teacher, "Yes, sir?"

"I think myself, and the class would be very interested in hearing your opinion on the topic at hand.  Would you be able to give any input?"  The teacher questioned as he paced the room, looking very much like an old ragged diplomat.

Relena blushed, "And what may I ask is the topic at hand?"  She asked, feeling every bit like a stick in the mud at that critical moment.

Mr Marlborough studied Relena, trying to figure out why she, the usually attentive student, hadn't been quite her usual attentive self.

"We were discussing the Cinq Kingdom's stance on pacifism and whether the Peacecraft family were in the right in instigating the doctrine within their nation," he said as he pointed to the blackboard where he had written the discussion topic up.  "Myself, and the rest of the class, I believe; would like to hear your opinion on the topic.  Relena?"  The teacher handed the attention of the class over to Relena.

Relena sighed.  She was going to have to discuss what was a very 'touchy' subject for her with others eventually.  Now was as good as time as any to actually start speaking about her beliefs.  If she was correct in her assumptions, Milliardo, when he finally got them back into the Cinq Kingdom would probably want her to be the one to do all the talking.  She couldn't help if talking was something she was good at, and well endowed at participating in also . . .

"I think sir,"  Relena began, "that the Cinq Kingdom was in the right when they decided to use pacifism to try and keep peace within the nation.  And I also believe sir, that the Peacecraft family were in the right when they not only approved it, but established it."

"Ahh, and Relena why is that?"  Mr Marlborough questioned her.

"Sir, you may or may not have noticed that many nations of the world are war-stricken and war-ravaged, be it due to either their own internal conflict, or external disruptions such as terrorist attacks, border clashes, religious or ethnic wars etcera etcera.." Relena began, ticking off the reasons for various disruptions around the world

"Yes, but what does this have to do with pacifism, if you don't mind me asking Relena?"  her teacher paced once more up and down the classroom.  It was if he was trying to intimidate her.  Why would that be?  He was probably just trying to gauge an intense reaction from her on an extremely touchy topic.  Oh well . . .

"Not at all sir,"  she responded to her teacher.  These nations, you see, all have one thing in common.  And that is the fact that try as they might, true peace can not and has not been achieved or attained that has satisfied both parties to the conflict."

"And?"  her teacher asked wanting Relena to expand on her reasoning.

Relena scrunched her face, pausing to think for a moment.  Whatever she said next had to be convincing.  In a way she was testing herself and her ability to win a debate on Cinq's pacifism doctrine.  In the future, having chances to debate on topics so close to her own soul would be of a much more serious and may hap life-threatening tone, that the practice she was being granted now was worth more than the wealth she would probably inherit once she returned home.  

"Agreements between the parties involved in whatever conflict you please yourself to name, can never be made to the satisfaction of each party,"  Relena looked around the classroom for confirmation.  She had the attention of her fellow peers which was surprising.  If she'd been back in Treventville, most of the class would be chatting within their little cliques.  But no, she had the class' attention.  Then again, this was the 'mighty St. Michael's'. 

"Why not," she continued, "forget about agreements, about the power seekers gaining whatever they please, while the people, the civilians are left worse off then what they were beforehand?  And instead, why not focus on dissolving all boundaries around the world, and constituting a doctrine of total pacifism." 

Pausing for a moment, Relena looked to her teacher for confirmation to continue.  He indicated with his hands, for her to further expand on her explanation beforehand.  Very well.

"The Cinq Kingdom, was like a model for the rest of the world . . .  It used the pacifism doctrine to settle the nation's problems.  And you will probably recall that the doctrine did have very pleasing results for awhile.  But, the Peacecraft family, the ones who showed their support and took steps to uphold the doctrine were assassinated quite shortly after the doctrine started to take effect."

"Do you believe, if the Peacecraft family were still alive today that the Cinq Kingdom would not be the mess that is now?  Or do you believe that the belated family are in fact the ones to blame for the rioting and suppression that goes on now?"  Her teacher questioned her.  Relena noticed with wry humour that his eyebrow raised slightly as he asked the question, crinkling into a 'v' shape that marred his forehead.

"I believe sir, that total pacifism could work," she paused once again, silently chanting a mantra of 'make this work, make them believe, get it right,' to herself.  

"But for it to be achieved, Cinq cannot be the only ones to use the method.  Every other nation in the world must also use the pacifism approach.  It may not have worked as a model.  But with every other nation in the world working together with total pacifism as their aim and mode of government, I believe that it could be achieved and therefore attained."  Relena finished, using all the years of research, pondering and mulling of her family's beliefs and ideals to try and make her class believe her when she said that her ideal was the only way for the world to go. Well, if true peace was to be attained, and in the process the safeguarding of humanity itself.

"What a load of fat stinking crap!"  a low growl emanated through the entire political science classroom.

The hushed whisperings of Relena's political science class began.  Heero Yuy barely ever spoke in class.  He actually only ever spoke when called upon, or to aggravate one of his peers, which he was clearly doing with Relena now. 

Relena recognised almost immediately who had so immodestly disagreed with her.  She should have known he'd get in her way.  He had a habit of taking the opposing side whenever their opinions were required.  Especially the opposite side, of whatever side she was on.  Did he have to disagree on this though?? 

-

"Well, Heero, what would you do instead then?"  Relena questioned, turning in her seat to meet his cold level glare.

Heero sneered,  "I'm just saying, look at the conflict that occurs in Cinq now."

Relena's eyes narrowed slightly, "That conflict was brought about by a greedy faction that wanted for their own destructive purposes to bring about the destruction of the Cinq Kingdom."

"And why was that Relena?"  Really, did he have to talk to her as though she were a child?

"I don't know Heero, because they were bored, because they thought that they'd get a kick out of watching innocent people die.  Take your pick?!"  she replied incredulously.

Heero smirked at her, if that was the she wanted to play it, well then so be it!  "It's my understanding that there were more than two 'factions' that brought about the Cinq's destruction."

Relena sighed, yes, he was correct when he said that there were more than two factions that brought about the Cinq's destruction.  But, in Relena's mind there had been only one.  The faction that had killed her parents, and left her to grow up an orphan on the run, and in disguise 

"There were more than two factions, Heero that brought about the Cinq's destruction.  But only one of them assassinated the Peacecraft family.  And the Peacecraft family were the people to uphold and promote the doctrine in the first place.  Without them pacifism was only a mere dream."  Relena finished.  Maybe, he'd quit attacking her and agree with her, seeing that her ideal was correct.  Yeah right!  Heero was not the type of person to give up easily.

Instead Heero said to Relena, "So, what are you getting at.  Because, truthfully Relena, I'm completely lost."

"What I've been trying to say, is that the Cinq Kingdom was used as a model for pacifism.  And, although that model was unsuccessful in its completion, it did demonstrate to the world for awhile, that if other nations followed in the Cinq's footsteps, internal and external problems within other nations would be solved so much more easily."  She looked around the classroom, as recognition ever so slowly dawned on her classmates faces.  "The Peacecrafts wanted to demonstrate to the rest of the world that pacifism could work and the Cinq was the perfect model for them to do so."

Relena paused.  That was all that she could possibly say on the topic without exposing herself as knowing more about the Cinq Kingdom and the Peacecraft family then was normal for the average teenage girl.

Mr Marlborough, the long forgotten political science teacher suddenly started clapping.  Relena whirled around in her seat, to face her now applauding teacher.  What??  She glanced around the classroom as realization finally dawned on her usually glowing face which was now a ghostly pale.  They were clapping for her, and her well-supported argument.  What Relena didn't realise was that the class were clapping for her winning her argument against Heero.  It was an achievement and a half in her peers opinion, and the more so that she'd outwitted him in public. 

Heero did not join his classmates in their applaud, but he did however somewhat bow his head uncharacteristically so that only Relena saw him relent to her submission.  And with that he excused himself from the classroom.  Relena's peers believed this was Heero's way of cowering away and showing his already believed bad-sportsmanship.  But, Relena had a feeling it was something else.  He probably just wanted to get out of the classroom so he didn't embarrass himself further.  Anyhow, Relena took the bowing of Heero's head before as his form of an apology for the events that passed the week before.  If it wasn't his form of an apology.  It would just have to do.

****

Heero left the political science class rather quickly after Relena showed her talents as a potential politician.  She'd done well in supporting her opinion.  Even outwitting him in what was a subject he had always thought himself to have an abundance of knowledge in.  But, her outsmarting of him had been expected.  At least on his client's behalf.  Heero, himself was still trying to regain his composure and get over the shock of Relena displaying such a vastness of wisdom on the Cinq Kingdom and Peacecraft family..  He had to admit, she did seem to have a talent for being able to sway your opinion on a topic.   Heero, hadn't had much of an opinion on the Cinq kingdom before.  He just wasn't one for having opinions.  But, the way Relena had spoken, and with so much passion, Heero almost believed that Oz, Romafellar and the Alliance Federation were the mongrels she'd managed to make them out to be.

But his opinion didn't matter.  He was only there to report what he saw.  And that was why, at that very moment, he stood in the pay phone box near the students common room, and was about to ring a very important person.

"Yuy speaking," 

"Ah, yes Yuy, password?"

"Wing zero"  

"Confirmed.  Thank you Heero.  Now, to what do I owe the honour of your phoning me now, after how long has it been.... two weeks??"

Heero literally snarled.  His clients paid him sufficiently well.  That didn't mean that he had to like them.  This client in particular was a man whom he got no pleasure out of working with whatsoever.  He was a cold and calculated bastard.  And the sooner Heero could finish this job the better.  He didn't want to deal with this specific client ever again.

"I was ringing to let you know that I have witnessed the subject engage very mindfully in discussions about the Cinq Kingdom and Peacecraft family."

"Anybody can engage knowledgeably in discussions about the Cinq Kingdom and Peacecraft family Heero.  You've got to get me more than that."

"The subject was a little too knowledgeable if you get my point."

"That's still not good enough Yuy.  We need more."

Heero sighed.  He wanted to finish his work with this client as soon as possible.  But, just as he had suspected when his guardian had signed him up for this job, his gut feeling had proved correct in that this client was going to prove very difficult and was at the same time severely demanding.

"Well, what do you want me to do then?"

"Just keep on doing what your doing.  Keep watching and waiting.  She'll trip up sooner or later."

Heero sighed.  He rubbed the bridge of his nose irritably.  The way 'the subject' was going, he could be in for a long wait . . .

His client on the other end of the telephone line cut through, interrupting Heero's thoughts  "I'll discuss further with you what to look for when we reconvene the next long weekend."

Heero paused, "hn... you mean when I have my 'family visit'?"

"Exactly right, Yuy.  Fast learner huh?"

Heero's growl emanated down the phone line, while his client responded with only amusement and his own laughter permeated back down Heero's end of the phone line.

"Is that it?"  he asked irritably.

"For now Yuy,"  Heero went to hang the phone up, when his client spoke up once again, "Oh, and Yuy, don't go forgetting who's the boss."

Heero slammed the phone back in place.  He hated that guy.  He was a miserable excuse for a human being, and if his guardian ever game him the go-ahead he would gladly kill the guy.

What a shame that permission would never be granted to him.  His guardian had to keep Heero on a too tight leash.

****

Everybody stayed at school for the weekend.  Usually, Relena noted, most of St. Michael's wealthier students went home for the weekend.  Relena never did.  The cost of petrol to fuel her VW was just too hefty a price.

Plus the dance was on this weekend.  And everybody was going.  Well, that was what Dorothy had sarcastically told her, when Relena had mentioned skipping it.

Oh well.  Relena didn't mind a good dance now and then.  And she liked the chance to wear a pretty dress, even though she knew her dress would in no way compare to the wealthier students who could afford flashy ones.  And because Relena had forgotten that there was even a dance on, she'd had to dig around in her very small wardrobe of clothes for an old dress.  She'd managed to find a summer dress that she'd worn to Hilde's barbecue earlier that summer.  It was cerulean blue, matching the colour of her eyes.  It was short, ending just above her knees.  But it wasn't too tight.  Instead, it was a nice and loose and flowing-like.  It was done in a very simple pattern, and flared out as the hem sat above her knees.  Relena surveyed herself in Dorothy's mirror.  She didn't look as plain as she usually did.  In fact maybe a little 'fetching'.  She smiled to herself as she realised that this would be the first time her friends would see her in anything other than their school uniform and her jeans which she'd worn when she'd first arrived.

Relena had decided to leave her hair unbraided that night.  The dance was a chance to display how long her hair really was, and also to show off the golden highlights she'd snagged while working outside in her foster father's gas station that summer.  She pressed her lips together as she rubbed just the briefest amount of lip gloss on them.  She wasn't really into the whole make up thing, but she wanted to look nice for the evening.  Dorothy had lent some eye-shadow and blush, which Relena had masterfully (surprisingly enough) applied.  Studying herself in the mirror once again, Relena smiled to herself.  She did clean up well when she put her mind to it!

****

"Come on Heero, it's only a dance!"  Quatre said through his roommate's bedroom door.  Heero was refusing to go.

"It'll be fun."  Quatre tried again.  After fifteen minutes of trying to get Heero to attend the dance, Quatre had decided that it was time to give up.

The sound of the front door knocking interrupted Quatre from trying to talk his friend into attending the dance any further.

Duo was leaning happily on the door frame with a disgruntled Wufei and placid looking Trowa down the way.

"Um, hello?" 

Duo smiled, "Remember you said we could meet at your dorm before the dance Quatre?"

Oh yeah.  He'd forgotten.  He'd been so busy trying to talk Heero into attending that he'd forgotten about the whole meeting up thing.  "Of course I remember.  I've just been a bit busy here 's all."

A wry smile marred Trowa's face, as he guessed at what, or more correctly who had kept Quatre busy.  "Heero being difficult again?"

A faint smile settled on Quatre's lips as he smiled at his friend who was so perceptive, yet so quiet about it.

The door to Heero's room slammed open, before anything else could be said on the topic.  A very angry, yet very formal looking Heero Yuy stepped out of the room.  He calmly observed the now filled-to-the-brim dorm, and said in his monotonous voice that had such power in it, "I am not being difficult, and I am going to the dance."

Heero seemed to have a talent for saying what he wanted to say without having to actually say it.  For instance, the way he'd just said that he was going to the dance, let everybody in the room know that he didn't want to discuss with them why he'd changed his mind, and that if you asked him about it, you were likely to get your face punched in.

"Well, should we get going then?"  Quatre said as he straightened his tuxedo.  He was more used to these sort of things then the others he suspected.  As they made their way to the school's gym where the dance was to be held that evening, Quatre wondered if Relena had managed to get her act together.

And, as the group entered the gym, he observed, that yes she had managed to get her act together.

"Holy momma!"  Duo whistled to Relena who waved at the group.  She was standing on the outskirts of Dorothy's group of friends, Quatre noted.  She stood tall and staunch like, but Quatre noted that an unsure look marred her pretty features.  As confident as she may have seemed to everyone else, she was probably a bundle of nerves.  She was always like this when it came to social functions.

The group made their way over to Dorothy's friends, and Relena stepped out as Quatre ritually pecked her on the cheek.  "You look great!" he whispered in her ear.  She smiled back at him, oblivious to the raised eyebrows amongst Dorothy's group of friends.  Unbeknownst to them, Quatre and her had just made themselves look like a couple.  Kissing your 'friend' in public kind of shot down any attempts you made at stating that you weren't a couple.

Dorothy's friends shyly flashed their pretty little smiles at Relena and Quatre's friends.  Duo, sensing the tension stepped forward and asked one of the girls to dance.  The girl obligingly accepted, and Duo relentlessly spun the girl around the room, displaying his flair for waltzing.

"The nuns apparently taught him,"  Quatre said quietly to Relena as she watched the two.

Relena intensely observed the other dancing couples in the room.  So intensely, that she hadn't realised that she and Trowa were the only ones now standing together.  Everybody else had paired off.  Well, everybody but Heero.  He'd disappeared the moment he'd enter the gym.  He certainly was what you termed a 'solitary' person.

Relena stood with Trowa, silently taking in the rapture of her peers who were fortunate enough to have a partner.  Quatre was dancing with Dorothy, while Wufei was dancing with, Relena noted an older woman!  She'd seen Sally Po around and about the school, and from what Relena had observed, she seemed nice enough.  She had to admit though, she'd been surprised that Wufei knew Sally.  He did seem to spend a lot of time degrading the female species after all.

"Surprising isn't it?"  Trowa asked Relena.

Relena looked up at the tall boy who hadn't left her side since the group had gone their own way, meeting and greeting and flirting with other people at the dance.  He'd seemed content enough to keep Relena company.

"What's surprising?"  She unconsciously smoothed the front of her dress, which Trowa noted was very flattering for her figure.

"Wufei dancing with a girl,"  he smiled.

Relena nodded.  She liked Trowa.  He was the type that didn't intrude in your personal space.  He seemed to sense when you wanted to be left alone and when you needed company.  Like now, Relena didn't want to be left alone, like a reject.  And Trowa, seemed quite content to stand with her watching the dancing figures laugh, smile and flirt, without a single care in the world.

"Would you like to dance?"  He asked her.  Relena looked up at him, slightly startled.  She'd thought that the reason he'd been standing, watching everybody else was that he couldn't dance.  As if reading her thoughts, he said, "That is what we're here for, isn't it?"

"Lead away..."Relena held onto Trowa as he spun her gracefully around the room.  She laughed a little as he so delicately twirled her, thinking that whichever girl ended up with Trowa for a girlfriend would indeed be in for a lucky catch.

Once the song had finished, Trowa led Relena back to where the two had stood watching before.

"That's the third time Quatre and Dorothy have danced this evening  . . ."  Trowa noted.

Relena looked over at Quatre and Dorothy.  They did seem to be hitting it off rather well.  She glanced at Trowa, whose usually featureless face seemed to have a wounded look about it.  He looked almost in pain.  Could Quatre have done that to him?  

Trowa, sensing Relena's eyes on him, looked down at her.  She smiled helpfully at him.  "You know Trowa, back in Treventville everybody thought me and Quatre were a couple.  Having everybody believe we were a couple was kind of advantageous for the both of us."

"How so?"

"I didn't have to worry about being paired for life with one of those country hick guys because everybody thought Quatre and me were an item.  And as for Quatre . . ."  how could she say this?  "Well, for Quatre, let's just say it kept his parents and his friends off his back about finding a good wholesome girl."

Trowa stared at Relena incredulously.  Had she just said what he thought she said?

Relena unwittingly nodded at Trowa, knowing that he would have understood the hidden message in her words beforehand.

So why had Quatre spent the night dancing with Dorothy?

"He probably just enjoys her company Trowa.  He likes talking to  . . . challenging people,"  Relena responded, almost as though she'd read Trowa's mind.  Then, laughing ever so slightly, "Trowa, he rooms with Heero for pity's sake!!"

Trowa looked down at his much smaller companion.  He'd always thought quite highly of her, especially since she was Quatre's best friend.  But now, she'd given Trowa some important information regarding Quatre's sexuality, and had done so without Trowa having to ask, and given it in such a diplomatic and modest way.  They could have been talking about anything, the way she'd weighted the topic with so little importance.

"Would you like another dance?"  he asked her.

Relena shook her head, "No, if it's okay.  I might take a walk outside for awhile.  You know, get some fresh air?"

Relena had almost made it out of the gym, when a hand clasped around her wrist.  "Ouch!"

The hand released her, and she stood to face who had grabbed her.  It was Heero.  "Oh, it's you!  I was wondering where you'd disappeared to."

She'd been looking for him?  He pushed his messy chocolate brown hair back off his face, unconsciously trying to smooth it down.

"I was just going outside for a walk.  Why'd you stop me?"

"hn..."

"Okay.  Great excuse Heero.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need some fresh air!"

Heero watched as the slight figure with the pretty blue dress and golden halo of hair stalked away.

Why did he always have to make a jackass of himself whenever she was around?  She seemed to have a mannerism that made him react badly to her.  Shaking his head slightly, Heero wandered back to the dance, watching staunchly and silently as his friends loosened up enough to enjoy the evening.  Everybody seemed to be delighting in the dance, except for him.  He'd had enough of the stupid dance, and enough of making an idiot of himself in front of Relena.

He'd had enough of people.  He wanted out.  At least for a while.

****

Relena had wandered St. Michael's gardens for awhile after her confrontation with Heero.  She would have gone back to the dance, but she'd really had enough.  Heero had a way of completely putting her equilibrium out of balance.  Now, she couldn't face returning to the gym and watching all the happy smiling wealthy boys and girls flash their wealth around in the clothes they wore and the mannerisms they threw lavishly about.  She felt so out of place in those sort of settings.  She felt that even though Dorothy and her friends had let her join in with their conversation at the start of the dance, that they had looked down on her somewhat.  And, Relena had a fairly good idea why.  It was because she was 'the scholarship student'.  In other words the poor student.  The one with no connections, so they weren't under pressure to be pleasant to her.  Everybody was so false at this school.  It was all about connections and networking and how much money your parents earned.  Relena smirked to herself, as she thought of how Dorothy's friends had so subtly ignored her that evening and admittedly ever since she'd arrived at St. Michael's.  They were idiots.  And they would be absolutely mortified when they found out that they'd swept away the princess of the Cinq Kingdom . . .  Oh how wonderful it would be when they found out who she really was.

That was if she were alive, by the time she took her throne, nation and people back.

****

Relena arrived back to her dorm, and tripped over something as she entered her bedroom.  What?  That hadn't been there!

Switching her bed lamp on Relena surveyed her now destroyed room.  Someone had been in it while she'd been at the dance, searching for something.  And to cover their searching, they'd trashed it.

Relena couldn't help but cry.  She didn't have many possessions.  And, surveying the room, those few possession which she did own were now trashed.  

And under further surveillance, Relena realised that the person who had been in her room, had been in her room for a reason.  They'd been looking for something, and Relena was almost at once sure of the reason why her room had been broken into.  How would she explain this to Quatre??

Relena cried until she could cry no more.  Somebody must have found out who she was.  But who?  And more importantly how?  Relena wiped her nose, ruining her once pretty dress, and stood up resolutely.

She had a room to clean up.  And she had to clean it up before Dorothy got back, otherwise she'd ask a lot of questions, and then they'd be an investigation.  And Relena, in no way could let that happen.

Relena sighed as she attempted to straighten a picture frame with a photo of herself and the Dorlian's in it.  She wished that she could turn to someone with her problems sometimes.  And Quatre had seemed to be having such a good time tonight.  She couldn't spoil his happiness.  She would leave him out of this.  He worried about her enough already.

"Oh Heero, if only you were real for me....then maybe I could confirm the suspicions I know you have of me.....if only...."

Relena wiped the remnants of her tears away and set to cleaning her room up.

She'd be in for a long night.

Chapter ends.


	3. The proverbial shit is about to hit the ...

**A Boarding School Facade**** - by Jooles***

_Disclaimer - I don't own Gundamwing yadayadaya...****_

****

**Chapter Three**** -_the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan, big time.___**

_"I have never wished to cater to the crowd,_

_for what I know they do not approve,_

_and what they I approve I do not know."_

_-Epicarus_

"Quatre.  Will you wait up man?"  Duo called out to his friend as he attempted to catch up to him in the bustle of St. Michael's main corridor.

Quatre regarded his braided friend briefly before switching his attention to making his violin lesson in time.  He was already five minutes late.  Reganald, his uptight yet marvelously talented tutor was bound to have a major hernia if Quatre didn't get there soon.

"What's up with you?"  Duo implored, noting the frazzled pace that Quatre was walking at.

Quatre lifted the violin case he'd been idly swinging by his side in the rush to make it to the music room on time.  He was one of the few students that the school's music teacher Reganald took under his wings for one-on-one tutoring.  And Quatre wasn't one to get off side with his teachers.  As magnificent as Reganald was, he could be incredibly troll like if you weren't punctual.  "I'm late for violin Duo.  Reganald will have me for lunch if I don't get to class soon."

Duo rolled his eyes, the purplish blue of them emphasizing his disdain.  "Let me guess, no pun intended?  It is lunchtime blondie!"

"For some.  My lesson's at lunch time."

Duo shrugged, wanting to continue the comfortable banter that had developed between the two friends.  Deciding this, he resolutely walked with Quatre to his violin lesson.  And just for the hell of it.  He wondered idly if it would be big-headed of him to announce to Quatre what a good friend he was.  No.  Maybe not a good time to do so.  Quatre looked too out of sorts for his usually sensitive yet placid self.  No.  He needed some perfectly innocent teasing.  Then he'd be able to draw from Quatre the information he'd come in want of.  "Whatever.  Why'd you wanna do a crazy thing like play the violin anyway?"

Quatre smiled. Duo was just messing with him now.  "I don't know.  Why'd you wanna do a crazy thing like take 'shop?"

Duo lifted his hands in a mock surrender signal.  "Ahh . . .whatever . . . you know I want my business later on.  It's good training 'shop.  But anyway, your point is taken..  Now are you going to ask what I'm really doing here?"

Playing along Quatre asked the wanted question.

Duo answered his own question all too eagerly.  "I was just wondering if you being Lena's best friend and all had noticed her odd behaviour of late?  Eh?"  He couldn't help but ask the question in a bit of a sing-song voice.  He liked adding a twang to things sometimes.  It livened things up a bit.

A sharp sidelong glance and slightly widened ocean blue eyes confirmed the answer to Duo's question.

"Have you talked to her about it?"  Duo asked noticing the way Quatre's shoulders had hunched over and his head now had a defeated lopsided tilt to it.

"Tried to talk to her is more like it..."Quatre muttered.

"And?"

"She didn't want to talk about it.  Said she was tired and busy and stuff like that."  Quatre replied, his voice portraying the hopelessness that he must have been met with upon confronting Relena.

"Do you think she's lying?"

Quatre nodded.  "Probably.  But Relena doesn't like to lie.  It's not her way.  Though when she has to, she opts for saying nothing . . . which is why she's been avoiding us.  She'll tell us in her own good time Duo.  Until then we'll just have to wait it out."

Duo groaned, "This bites man.  Things just aren't the same with Lena in a funny mood."

Quatre shook his head, "Well there's nothing we can do about it.  Especially when she's like this.  Don't worry, she'll come out of it sooner or later.  I've seen her like this before."

Duo's braid flicked to the side as he turned his head to study his friend.  "How long do you think she'll be like this?"

Quatre shrugged.  There was just no telling with Relena.  Her 'moods' could last from anything from hours to days to weeks at a time.  And Quatre was acutely aware that her funny mood of late had nothing to do with the bane of the female population's existence (menstruation) coming in the form of PMS.  No, something else was up.  And Relena wasn't letting on what had her so out of sorts.  But like he'd told Duo there was no way that she'd actually tell them what was wrong.  She was too kind for that.  She'd never liked the idea of burdening her friends with her problems.  Quatre knew that she hadn't quite forgiven herself for telling him the haunted and dangerous secret of her past all those years ago when they were but wee children playing in the backyard of the Winner family's estate.  Whatever it was that was bothering her she'd mull for awhile working it through her system, and eventually when she thought herself capable enough to deal with the problem would go back to being her usual self.  

"Hey Duo what are you doing for Christmas?" Quatre asked his friend as they stopped outside the music room.  He was inexcusably late for his lesson with Reganald, but taking his time to talk with Duo had been worth it.  It had given him the chance to work some stuff, namely Relena's weird mood, through his own system.

Duo's lanky shoulders lifted in consternation.  He hadn't thought about the upcoming seasonal holiday that much.  It had never been a holiday that he particularly enjoyed.  Especially with the recent passing of Father Maxwell.  He did want to return to the orphanage for the holiday and spend it with the nuns and some of the children he'd grown up with.  But somehow this year going back just didn't seem right.

"Not much Quatre. I haven't really thought about it."

Quatre smiled.  That was the answer he was looking for.  It meant that Duo might possibly consider his invitation of spending the Christmas holiday with him and the others (if he could convince them) at his family's estate on the outskirts of Treventville.

"Well then.  Would you like to spend Christmas with me and the others at my place?"

Duo stopped mid-pace.  He'd never been invited home for the holidays by friends he'd had in the past.  Sure he'd had friends before he'd arrived at St. Michael's.  It was just that Duo had never allowed them to get too close to him.  It was with this startling piece of information that Duo realised he'd let people get close to him at St. Michael's.  He'd made friends with the likes of Quatre, Relena and even social retards (well they were) like Wufei, Trowa and Heero.  What was it about these people he'd come to call friends that made him consider spending the Christmas season with them?  Duo wasn't quite sure what it was.  He felt, however as though he'd formed a strong bond with them.  And, with a small enigmatic mental groan, Duo realised he'd done so without even realising it.  That is, until Quatre had extended the Christmas vacation invitation to him today.

"Have you asked the others?"  Duo asked, wanting to do a little research before he accepted Quatre's generous invitation.

It was Quatre's turn to look startled.  A faint cheery pink blush stained the bridge of his nose and the apples of his cheeks.  He looked like a little kid caught by their said parent doing something they'd expressively forbidden them of doing.

"Um I asked Trowa last night.  But I haven't gotten around to asking the others yet."

Duo grinned slyly "Oh so you're going to be all shy now??"  He jibed enjoying the light teasing he was bestowing on his overly sensitive friend.

Quatre didn't reply.  He didn't have to.  Because now, the faint cheery pink blush that had only slightly stained his nose and cheeks had deepened into the unmistakable colour of beet red.

"Oh brother.  Quatre do I have to do all your dirty work?"  He exclaimed.

"No Duo!  I just haven't gotten around to asking them yet.  I'll ask them later on."

"Uh uh, and I'm the embodiment of the god of death!"  Duo exclaimed, flicking his braid to the side of his right shoulder signaling his disbelief.

"I really will.  Now will you accept my invitation?"

The unmistakable grin that spread across was all the answer Quatre needed.  But Duo liking to have the last word no matter what voiced his acceptance anyhow.  "And I thought you'd never ask!"

****

"Hi.  Can I change my music class please?"  Relena stood at the front of the school's main office.  The secretary looked up at her in disdain and got up to get the 'necessary forms'.  Relena shrugged and leaned against the counter to wait.

"What's wrong with music?"

She'd recognised his voice almost immediately.  The clearly grazed yet monotonous sounding voice that could only be Heero Yuy's.  Relena turned to face the speaker beside her.  And there he was.  He stood leaning against the counter, just like she had been doing only moments before.  His craftily messy brown hair was splayed damply across his forehead.  And his uniform, usually so pristine looked a little rough and ready.

"Just come from PE?"

He nodded.  Not wanting to admit to himself how much he enjoyed being around such an observant young woman.

"What are you going to take instead?"  He continued his attempt at conversation.  Although he'd never been terribly good at the art, it was necessary (all so he kept telling himself) to get close to this girl.  Although his teenage hormone loaded body couldn't quite make out the reason why at present.  He knew that he had to get close to her for his client's sake.  But there was also this uncomfortable feeling that nagged at him every time he saw her, or every time somebody mentioned something about her.  It was this much too warm and not very comfortable feeling that made him shift as though he were restless, though the reality was that the thought of her had caused a sort of reaction within himself.  Doctor J had never explained feelings to Heero.  Even so Heero had done pretty okay up his meeting Relena in the dealing of new and uncharted emotions.  But of late he'd been absolutely shell-shocked with the overwhelming feelings that came with this new emotion that he didn't know how to react, what to say, or even how to feel.  And it was with this realisation that Heero recognised whatever this unnamed emotion was, it was one of the big ones.  One of the important emotions that only come to people so many times in a life time and are worth the wait in the times in between its absence.  Heero would give anything if he could actually name that damned and said emotion.  That way he'd be able to block it out.

Relena studied Heero.  They hadn't spoken to each other since the night of the dance where she'd snapped at him.  To be truthful, she hadn't really spoken to anyone seriously since the night of the dance.  Since her room had been broken into she'd been on her guard, big time.  Quatre had tried to get her to tell him what was going on with her that morning.  She'd put on the 'everything's okay' facade.  Of course he didn't believe her, but he recognised her stubbornness' when he saw it and had left her alone.  She had however gotten over the little grudge she'd had against Heero.  One thing the break in had taught her was that the time she had as just another teenybopper was short.  But if possible she could make it sweet.  That bit was up to her however.

"Japanese," she replied, not being dumb to the slightly awed expression that settled on his features when she told him of her subject choices.

"You do know how hard Japanese is right?"

She responded the Japanese version of her agreement while at the same time grinning an absolutely wicked yet delectable grin at the young man beside her.  Heero had a strange urge to lean over and press his lips to that grin,  Just to see what it would feel like...the meeting of his lips with her own soft coral ones.

He smirked instead.  At least he didn't smile.  Smiling would be too much out of character for his own good.  "Smart ass," he muttered.

Relena couldn't help it.  She playfully punched him in the shoulder.  Heero not being used to the 'touchy-feely' type of contact Relena exerted jumped at her touch.

"Hey aren't you Japanese?"  Relena inquired as she once again leaned back against the counter.  Heero noted the outline of her figure in the disgusting mauve excuse for a uniform.  It hid the curves he knew she had so well.  And this, Heero realised, made him absolutely utterly miserable.

Heero nodded through a pair of gritted teeth.  Now how had she known that?  He couldn't recall ever speaking of his ethnic origins to her.  Maybe Quatre had said something...

"How'd you know?"

Relena shrugged.  How could she explain to Heero that she'd more or less guessed that he was Japanese?  She seemed to have a knack with these sorts of things for some reason.  "I kind of guessed,"  she said not very convincingly.

Heero openly stared at her in a mixture of morose and disbelief.  He couldn't quite get the phrase _'yeah right' out of his mouth.  However Relena could tell that he was thinking exactly that.  She lifted her shoulders in another shrugging motion, illustrating to him that it was just another hidden niche about her that he ought to find damn interesting if he knew what was for his own good._

"How come you're changing classes?"  Heero asked, he himself relaxing against the counter once again.  He watched with wry amusement as Relena blushed a little seeming to search her mind for the correct way of wording what she wanted to say.

"Um....well you see the music teacher kind of forced me to take part in the concert tomorrow night."

Heero frowned.  So what?  Most music students loved the chance to show off their talent.  He knew that Quatre was looking forward to the concert, as nervous as he said he was.  Heero had after all heard his friend practicing in the wee small hours of the morning and into the witching hour of the night in the weeks leading up to the concert.  It was violin and piano in the morning, singing and the clarinet at night.  If it had been Duo practicing Heero would have strangled the little bugger by now.  But Quatre was a good friend (not that Duo wasn't) and he did seem to have an extraordinary talent for music.  Even when he spoke his voice rang like the gentle bells supposedly heard on the hooves of Santa's reindeer come Christmas time.

"And you think that by dropping music you won't have to take part in it?"  Heero said letting Relena know his assumption of the situation at hand.

Relena frowned at Heero.  Funny how the quiet ones were nearly always the most perceptive.

"Reganald found out that the only reason I took the class was so I could share at least one of my classes with Quatre."  She explained to Heero, feeling in a surprisingly sharing mood.  Plus Heero seemed to be a bit more talkative than usual.  Which was to Relena's chagrin, despite the reeling feeling of surprise she knew she was hiding.

"Can you actually play an instrument?" 

Relena flushed.  "Um, does the recorder count?"  She looked up meeting Heero's cobalt blue gaze.  And she couldn't help but once again be surprised.  For what she saw flicker in her quiet companion's eyes for the briefest of moments was amusement.  Heero shook his head, "Everyone knows that you play the recorder if you can't play anything else.  It's like the musical instrument for dummies."

Relena lifted her head in acknowledgment, her cerulean blue eyes sparkling.  Heero couldn't help but grimace.  Throughout their whole exchange he'd been aware of that uncomfortable feeling again.  Then Heero remembered something,  _wasn't Relena supposed to be made at him? _

Relena watched as Heero cleared his throat, looking to her disbelief almost nervous.  Huh?  "What's the matter?"

"Aren't you meant to be mad at me, or something?"  The flat way in which he stated the question hid the anxiousness he felt at maybe losing the small acquaintance they seemed to have built up within the last few minutes. 

Relena shook her head.  "You have this way of making me so unsure of myself.  It's sometimes a little . . ."  she searched for the right word, "off putting."

Heero couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.  So she felt the same way too.  At least the uncomfortable feeling wasn't one way.   But she didn't know that he also shared the same 'off putting' feeling.

"Anyway it's not healthy to keep grudges."

Heero nodded.  Indeed it wasn't.  But that didn't mean that he actually followed through with the age-old philosophy.  He still hadn't quite forgiven Duo for the 'anal retard' comment regarding his general attitude to the world around him.  Duo had of course paid sorely when he'd made the comment which he swore was 'harmless'.  But Heero was known to have an abrupt temper at the worst of times and Duo just happened to be there slagging him off when he'd been in a foul mood.

Relena started to say something else, but the secretary that had looked so sullen only minutes ago came back looking highly amused.  Relena glanced at Heero who shrugged at the unspoken question - _what drugs is she one?_

The secretary, an overly thin and heavily made-up woman handed Relena the forms she'd been gone so long in retrieving.  "So can I change?" 

The secretary studied Relena for a moment.  "Oh, of course you can dear.  It is after all _your education."  She handed Relena the necessary paperwork that gave her the go ahead to leave Reganald's music class.  Relena looked at the paperwork suspiciously.  Something was not right.  The secretary had come back looking far too smarmy for her own good._

Heero peered over Relena's shoulder, his breath on her neck creating a noticeable tingling sensation.  Relena told herself to concentrate on the piece of paper in front of her.  Yet she was finding it noticeably difficult.  Suddenly she felt an unmistakable chuckle...wait, was that Heero laughing?  Impossible!

"Looks like you'll have to perform tomorrow anyway," he coughed, trying to cover his amusement.

The paper on the counter came back into focus as Relena grappled with what Heero had just told her. 

"Oh crap."  The dean and Reganald had given her permission to change classes.  But Reganald being the ass that he was renown as being had insisted that she not be moved until next week.  After the music department's concert was all over and done with.  "When I refused to participate he told me that there was no way out.  He kept on going on and on about how performing was unavoidable and that it there was no way out of it . . . blah blah blah!"

"I thought you didn't know how to play anything?"  Heero inquired interested at this new tid bit of information Relena had given him.  _So, she could do something musical after all..._

Relena shook her head in disagreement.  "I suppose if I must admit it, I can sing.  But only a little.  And nothing compared to the others in the choir."  She let out a sigh of frustration.  _Must everything at this damned uppity school be so damned difficult!  "You know this totally sucks.  Can't anything go my way?  Not even once!"_

Heero considered Relena.  Why'd she have to look so fiercely and startlingly beautiful when she was angry?  It seemed that whenever he encountered Relena she was or in the near future was angry.  And from what she'd just said, he gathered that she didn't mean to be annoyed a lot of the time.  Instead it seemed as though disturbing things just happened to come her way.  And in doing so offsetting the eternal balance of the aligned stars above them....Or maybe it was just a string of bad luck.  

He was brought out of his reverie of deep thought as he heard and rather felt a distinct _thud sound against the counter the two had been so lazily leaning on before the secretary had come back.  He couldn't help but smirk at the sight of Relena carelessly kicking the counter for all her worth.  Her golden honey-coloured hair had come loose from those wretched braids she always had them done up in, and had come to splay itself around her head and down her back.  She was  in no small feat 'entrancing'.  Heero mentally groaned as he felt the wretchedness of that uncomfortable feeling he had yet to pinpoint settle very inconveniently in his thoughts.  He wished that Relena might kick him a little bit.  Maybe that'd get him out of the mess he felt he'd gotten himself into.  In so few words and as many confrontations as he could count on a single hand she'd worked his way into his system, and in a way he'd become attached to her.  Only fate could be so cruel.  He realised with a hint of sardonic yet dramatic irony, that he was living a real life tragedy.  The girl that he'd not so obviously (not even to her) become attached to, even if it was an odd sort of 'I want to kill you'-yet 'I would love to kiss you' attachment had become he could only suppose, the object of his affections.  And the complete tragedy of it all was that his masochistic and arrogant client wanted information on this girl so that he could eventually Heero suspected get Heero to kill her.  Although Heero still had yet to find out why Relena was so important.  Though he had his suspicions.  And his gut instinct. He still had as yet to figure out exactly what both were trying to piece together._

Relena had now created a very noticeably deft mark in the counter's front.  St. Michael's had been marred!  Shock, horror!  She'd stopped kicking the counter, Heero noticed and was now instead hunched over the counter, obviously trying to regain some composure from her loss of temper.

"And I thought you were a pacifist..."was Heero's flat yet tinged with wry amusement remark.   Relena groaned.  Did he have to be there to see her whole little episode?  He seemed to catch her at the worst of times.

"You still here?  I thought you'd have run away like everybody else seems to have."  It was true.  The main office, with the exception of the secretary who'd gone back to her desk as though she'd seen it all before had all but emptied.  She hadn't scared the living shit out of them, Relena admitted to herself.  But she had given the snobs that made up the indefinable amount of cliques in attendance at the school something to gossip about - _Relena Dorlian's mental state of health._

"You must think I'm schizo or something, the way I'm so up and down?"

Heero smirked.  No she wasn't schizo.  Nor was she mentally unbalanced.  She did however, seem to have a lot on her mind.  "Hey, it is only one night.  One music performance.  It can't be that big a deal.  The rest of the music class has to perform right?" 

Relena shook her head once again.  She'd been doing that a lot lately.  "Reganald's making me sing a solo with the choir," she winced at the thought of her upcoming performance.  So much for keeping a low profile.  "Oh god...I think I'm going to be sick."

Heero frowned.  Relena was definitely losing it.  "Relena get a hold of yourself,"  he deftly grabbed her arms so he could pull her upright.  "You can do it Relena."

"I know I can," Relena groaned, "that doesn't mean I necessarily want to."

Heero patted her shoulder.  _Hey, since when did he become so touchy feely Relena wondered?.  "This is nice."  She observed._

"What's nice?"

"Us.  This.  Not fighting."  Relena explained.  "It's a first!"  She couldn't help but laugh.   But it was the truth.  And Heero obviously saw the truth of her words by the frown that marred his face and the faint blush of his cheeks.  Not only was that unbelievable, it was also inconceivable!

"Great,  you're probably going to go all mushy on me or something!"  Heero groaned beginning to realise he may have made a grave mistake in his comforting of the girl.

"Forget it Heero.  I've enjoyed our confrontations way too much."  She dismissed the comment with a wave.  Although she was quite tempted to turn all mushy with him; thanking him for comforting her and talking her through her panic attack, not thinking that she was a head case at the end of it all.  "Thank you Heero anyway.  Things around me go way too mental for their own good.  I occasionally need somebody save from drowning in the troubles that come my way."  Heero nodded.  Good.  He understood.  Or he at least accepted her reasoning.  "You want to go to lunch now?  Losing my temper nearly always makes me hungry?"

Heero was very tempted to say yes.  Actually he was sorely tempted to say yes.  Just so he could spend a little longer acting like he could possibly care for this girl.  But he couldn't.  And he didn't.  At least that's what he told himself.  So turning Relena down, Heero shook his head and hurried off in the opposite direction well aware that he left Relena confused, rejected and once again a tad upset with him.  He wanted to care for her.  Oh god, did he want to.  But it wasn't his job to care for people.  He was hired specifically because he didn't care.  Because he could get the information his clients wanted and carry out the job the way his guardian's clients wanted him to.  He'd been trained so as that he wouldn't feel any guilt, remorse, pain, loss on his missions.  Yet, for some reason this mission was becoming inextricably harder for him to follow through with.  He was beginning to suspect that he had a heart.  And with this suspicion followed another one.  He was beginning to care.  And that was something nightmares were made of.

****

Chapter ends.

_Whew!  I'm sorry that that took so long for me to write everybody._

_Hopefully now that I've gotten this chapter out I'll get round to getting the others out._

_Thanks for taking the time to read._

**_Next time:  Quatre, Trowa and Relena perform in the concert so dreaded by Relena.  And some 'devastating' news reaches Relena.  'Tune in next time'!! LOL_**


	4. Devestating news and a concert of sorts

_A**uthor notes: I've used a few lyrics in this chapter and their marked with this-// at the beginning and end of each lyric phrase.  The lyrics used at the concert have a note to go with them which you can read at the bottom of this chapter installment.**_

_Disclaimer - usual stuff...I don't own Gundamwing blahblahblah...._

**A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles*__**

**Chapter Four**

Relena stared disdainfully at the appearance of herself in the mirror.  Eugh!  She was at that moment very tempted to strangle her best friend.  As loyal and lovely as her tousled blond-headed friend was; he did have an annoying habit of babbling at times.  Actually, to be honest she had the habit also.  She was still a little pissed with Quatre for babbling to Reganald about her taking on the role as a soloist for the concert.  Quatre had thought he'd been her knight-in-shining-armour, rescuing her when Reganald found out about her not taking his class seriously.  She hadn't planned on taking part in the concert either.  Still, funny how things worked themselves out.  Quatre possessed all the traits you could ever want of when it came to looking for friends.  But he was still human.  And his tendency to babble had gotten Relena into the situation she was now at present in

Her uniform for the evening made her feel nostalgic.  She wore exactly the same type of uniform whenever she helped out Elana with diner's catering jobs.  All she needed to reenact the memory, making it real was an imaginary bar tray with shot glasses and champagne flutes.

Lacing her newly polished chunky school shoes, Relena headed for the concert hall...preparing to face either her stage fright or her impending doom.  The main reason why she was so set against not taking part in the concert was the status of many of the parents who would end up attending it.  Many of students' parents were prominent people.  Being either wealthy or prominent in politics.  Or some in both cases.  There was no way for Relena to tell for sure, whether or not she'd be recognised by the adults who attended that evening.  She may not have continued to go by the Peacecraft name.  It was inevitable, however that she inherited the Peacecraft looks.  Although no one would be able to link her with them at first glance.  But at the end of it all, she was still a true Peacecraft.  Through and through.  If anyone were to recognise her, she'd be doomed.  Not that she wasn't already.  She was still on her guard from the break-in to her room the night of the dance.  And although her development from girl child to woman had been slow, she'd grown a great deal during the summer break.  And, judging from the history books on the Peacecraft family she had inherited many of the traits likened to that of the Peacecraft family.

Relena was surprised to find Wufei sitting in the common room of the girls boarding area.  The Chinese boy had a distinctively pissed look on his face.  Scratch that.  He nearly always looked pissed.  Whether it be with the weather, Duo, a teacher, a mark he got in a test, or just the world in general.  Relena wondered what was stuck up his ass on this occasion.  Hesitantly Relena took a step forward and gracefully took a seat next to the silently seething boy watching the common room's television.

"Wufei."  Relena didn't want to come across all sappy and gooey with Wufei.  That sort of stuff never went down well with him.  Correction.  That sort of stuff didn't go down too well with any of her strange yet wonderful new friends.  They were generally too stoic for their own good.  Wufei especially.

Wufei glanced at Relena without turning his attention away from the television.  He raised an eyebrow to let her know that he'd seen her, yet didn't speak.  Oh gawd...  Relena couldn't help but groan.  He was having one of his "I will endure all this subhuman driveling shit with a sneer" days.

"Who you waiting for?"  She asked, all of a sudden interested at the prospect of Wufei sitting peevishly in the girls common room.  Had he lost his sense of direction?

Wufei continued to ignore her.  So Relena prodded some more.  Duo was definitely right about Wufei.  He was just so damn easy to annoy.  Hook, line and sinker, he practically asked for it!

"Oh come on Wu-man" Relena teased deliberately using Duo's favourite nickname guaranteed to annoy the shit out of the Chinese youth.  "Unless you've lost your sense of direction, I don't really see a good enough reason for you to be here."  She cleared her throat,  "and in the girls common room by the way.  The _girls common room."_

Wufei snarled at Relena.  _Idiot girl-friend/friend whatever of Quatre's.  She was such a busy-body...couldn't keep her nose out of other people's business.  He was there to meet Sally Po, but Relena didn't need to know that.  After all his relationship with the medic-trainee was no one else's business but his and Sally's.  They were after all the only ones involved.  And he preferred to keep it discrete.  He hadn't gone digging around trying to find out her secrets.  Not that he really cared or wanted to._

"Damn Wufei,"  Relena groaned, "I'm just making conversation.  Don't have to be so serious about it.  You show the sensitivity of a Medieval dentist you know?!" She grinned inwardly at the line Duo had given her.  Point for her!

Wufei turned his attention back to the television, although he wasn't really watching.  He was observing Relena's reaction to his 'anti-social' behaviour from the corner of his eye.  He watched as her fists clenched and then unclenched several times.  She moved around, fidgeting with her skirt a bit.  Then after a few minutes of more restless movement she finally settled down.

"Why are you waiting here Relena?"  Wufei finally spoke.

Relena, startled out of her pondering reverie shrugged at Wufei.  It was her turn to play the coy one now.

"Has it got something to do with the concert on tonight?"

Relena shrugged.  She was giving him the silent treatment.  _Bitch.  Out of habit Wufei drummed his fingers on the side of the couch, the only evidence of his annoyance with her._

"Quatre said you were singing tonight..."

Relena sighed.  _Did everyone know she was performing or something?  Dorothy had put her through a thorough twenty-questions feat while she'd gotten ready that afternoon.  The girls in the boarding house wouldn't shut up about her upcoming solo.  And Duo kept on winking at her meaningfully whenever she saw him.  Gawd!!  It was beginning to get on her nerves immensely._

"You'll be late."  Wufei stated.  He then shoved his wrist in her face, displaying his very elegant and most expensive Rolex watch.  How could teenage boys be allowed to wear those things?  They were so 'extravagant' looking.  He was right though.  She was going to be late if she didn't get a move on.  She was a procrastinator at the best of times, tonight being one of those times.  If they were truly desperate to see her perform they'd be okay if she were a tad late.

Relena shrugged once again, and much to Wufei's dismay leaned back further into the couch.  "I like to watch the news," she stated simply.  She wasn't being pert, nor was she telling a lie.  She liked to keep up with the world's current affairs.  It kept her informed with her homeland without looking too obvious to the innocent onlooker.  To the outside eye it appeared as though she were a news junkie.

Wufei grumbled a bit.  So he was going to be in her esteemed presence may hap a little longer.  "Oh get over it Wufei.  I'm not going to tell Duo and the others about Sally.  I am capable of keeping my mouth freaking shut you know?!"  Relena snapped.  She instantly regretted her harsh words and the surprised look of hurt that crossed Wufei's features.  _So she knew about Sally hmm...how?_

"I saw you guys together at the dance.  You looked cute together."  Relena stated.  That was her evidence to the conclusion that she'd gathered.  Surprisingly she was obviously a very perceptive person to have been able to pick up on the nature of Wufei's and Sally's relationship from just the casual observation of them together at the dance.  Maybe he'd misjudged Relena after all.

The two quieted their discourse and settled in an eerily uncomfortable silence watching the items on the news programme that hour. 

Relena almost fell out of her chair when the Cinq Kingdom's flag was flashed across the screen as a symbol of a breaking-news story.  Wufei glanced at his now very agitated companion.  She was sitting on the edge of the couch, her knees pulled up to her chest and she looked as though she were hugging her kneecaps to death.  _What was going on? _

//Out of my depth.  Lost in the air.  Falling faster.  Like a broken elevator//

"In a now breaking story," the commentator began, "the Cinq kingdom today saw the worst bout of riots ever, with the deaths of up to fifteen hundred people, the worst death toll in a protest rally of this kind, ever . . ."

//Out of my depth.  Lost in the dark.  Waiting for the other shoe to come down hard.??

"Oh dear god."  Relena breathed.  Wufei studied his companion once again.  She'd gone a deathly pale and her cheeks were moist-stained.  _What the hell was happening?_

//I cannot communicate like I wish I could.  I do not deal with my problems like I know I should.//

The commentator continued describing the scene of the crime in disturbing detail.  "The question that everyone now is asking is whether the Romefellar's rule of the Cinq Kingdom is as_ just as they once promised on their ousting of the Peacecraft family.  Certainly fifteen hundred dead in one day cannot be titled as a __just and __fair rule.  One can only question how the Peacecraft family would react to this atrocity if they were alive today."_

//I am out of my depth.  I am out of my league.  Watching everything . . .just slip away from me.//

Relena was shaking terribly.  It was like she was having a nervous breakdown without having anything mentally wrong with her.  Wufei looked nervously at his companion.  Relena seemed to sense that Wufei was watching her and gathered her wits about her.  "I'm okay Wufei.  Sorry just a little relapse in thought."

//Something bad is going to happen.  I can feel it deep inside.  There are shadows all around me.  Like a bad moon on the rise.//   I am in over my head.//  I am in too deep over my head.//  I guess I should keep my opinions to myself.//  I guess I am out of my depth.//

"Ah ha." _Yeah right.  Something had happened to Relena in the small space of just a few minutes.  She'd looked nervous and apprehensive if anything when she'd first encountered him before sitting on the couch.  Wufei had put it down to pre-concert nerves.  She'd even wrangled him a bit while they'd been sitting on the couch.  But after watching that news footage of the Cinq Kingdom something had happened to Relena.  Something had shuttered off - or on. Wufei wasn't quite sure what.  The only conclusion that Wufei could draw on based on Relena's reaction to the news footage just shown was that Relena had some sort of emotional bond with the Cinq Kingdom.  Maybe she was worried for relatives living there.  She might be presuming their deaths.  There had after all been a countless number of deaths in the a fore mentioned rioting.  What a horrible place to be living in right at that moment.  And judging from photographs and descriptions in the history class Wufei took, the Cinq Kingdom had once been a beautiful kingdom, ruled by a beautiful and good-at-heart family.  It probably was still beautiful, Wufei surmised, but the iron-fisted rule of Romefellar had probably degraded the natural beauty a great deal.  People could not live in iron-constrictions.  It was not natural. The rioting was a protest against the rule, against the suppression.  And those Cinq civilians that had taken part in the rioting had paid dearly with their lives.  They had undoubtedly proved a point however.  A time of great change was upon the Cinq Kingdom.  The Romefellar Organisation either had to change their ideals or be overthrown.  On the latter reasoning Wufei was unsure.  Just who, or what would be courageous and strong enough to overthrow the Romefellar Organisation?  It was such a strong organisation.  It already ruled a great deal of the world's weaker nations.  The United States were lucky in that they had always been governed by such a patriotic government with such patriotic people that it was a country very difficult to overthrow.  So, in that way they had survived the brink of Romefellar's attempted takeovers.  This however left other smaller peace-loving countries such as the Cinq Kingdom open to the harsh hands of Romefellar who cared fairly little about their needs or wishes.  However the Cinq Kingdom was different in that its support and input of pacifism had meant it a target of Romefellar's.  Its people still paid the consequences of taking on such an extreme point of view of government almost twenty years after its instigation.  And the honey-haired girl dressed in the black skirt-white shirt ensemble beside Wufei was crying unshed and unheard tears of grief for people he could only guess she never even knew.  She had such a big heart.  And she seemed to feel their grievances as a mother did their child's._

//Out of my depth.  Right from the start.  I feel like I was born with an invisible heart.  Out of my depth seems like everyday.  I can't find the words to make the good things come my way.//

Wufei reached over unsuspectingly and patted Relena's shoulder gently.  He wasn't very open to moments of sentimentality, but the girl seemed to need someone at the moment.  She looked so lost, as though she had no clue at what she should do.  Not that she should be thinking to even do anything.  The Romefellar Organisation was just too big for a seventeen year old nobody to deal with.  What the Cinq Kingdom really needed was a secret armament programme.  They would then be able to deal evenly with the Romefellar Organisation and Oz; it's military force.

//I feel like I'm faking it.  I feel like I am wrong.  I feel like I'm a guest . . . like I just do not belong.//

Relena wiped her face with the sleeve of her now dampened white shirt.  So much for looking spiffy.  It was disgusting, no mortifying the waste of lives that had just been broadcasted on the news footage.  How could such a horrid government get away with ruling such a peace loving nation?  They should have learnt by now that the Cinq people, even after years and years of tortuous rule would not take the Romefellar government and its Oz special forces standing down.  There was no way of that.  Relena needed to contact Pagan.  He would know what to do.

//I am out of my depth.  Every single day.  I just cannot find the words.  To make my monsters go away.//

"Um, excuse me for a moment Wufei."  Relena stood up and left a thoughtful Wufei watching after her as she moved to the phone booth that was situated outside the common room.

****

Relena leaned against one of the three walls in the phone booth, grateful that she hadn't all but broken down in front of Wufei.  He'd sensed that something was up with her, but hadn't been able to pinpoint it.  That was good.  Her cover hadn't been blown yet.  Reaching for the phone, Relena flicked a myriad of coins into the pay box.  She then dialed a phone number she'd learnt off by heart the day after she'd escaped the Cinq Kingdom.

Three customary rings sounded out before the other person on the other end of the phone line picked up.  She and her brother were the only ones to have this cell phone number.  It was another secret in itself.  And the person who answered the phone was an old and respected friend.  He was something of a guardian and had hidden both herself and her brother safely in exile.  He also linked the two siblings together, acting somewhat as a go-between.  His name was Pagan, and he'd just picked up the phone.

"Ahhh...Miss Relena I was expecting you to call about now."  The gravely voice spoke with such eloquence yet you could hear just from the way that he articulated each word that although he was an aged man, he was also a wise one.  He in a way held an esteemed wisdom one could only be gifted with through years of hardship and experience in the ways of the world.

Relena sighed a tired sigh of frustration.  Things never got any easier.  She was living two lives.  The Dorlian life she lived more readily and more often.  But every now and then something like the rioting that had occurred today pulled Relena back to her Peacecraft origins reminding her of her destiny.  

"What do I do Pagan?  I can't just stand by and watch those people die . . . it's not meant to be like this."  Relena idly ran her fidgety hands up and down the telephone set.  It was the truth, _what on earth could she possibly do?_

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.  Pagan had been anticipating Relena's phone call.  But the news had only been broadcasted a few minutes ago.  He hadn't had enough time to work the situation through competently.

"There's nothing that you can do for the moment Miss Relena."  Pagan said finally.  There was no way that he could hide the hopelessness of the situation in the current tone of his voice.  He sounded like he'd lost his Butler of the Year trophy, only the situation was way worse than that.

"But I have to do something Pagan.  Fifteen hundred people are dead because I am too much of a coward to go back there."  Relena was now near tears.  She couldn't cry.  She was sick of crying.  God, no wonder none of the girls at St. Michael's had befriended her.  She cried way too much for her own good.

"You are no coward Miss Relena.  Nobody else knows you're alive.  How can you be a coward if you're considered deceased?"  Pagan said firmly, putting his foot down as a father did when his daughter tried to stretch her curfew by a few hours.  

"But what am I to do Pagan?"  Relena continued in her trip to self-deprivation.  "You said last time that my brother is not ready to return home yet.  'He doesn't have everything sorted' is what you said last time we talked.  But how can we stand idly by and watch our people killed off like cattle.  Just because they are protesting what should be their democratic right to voice their unhappiness at their current stature of government."  Relena fisted her small, callused yet delicately royal hand against the wall of the phone box.  _What was she to do?_

Pagan cleared his throat.  He needed to keep the royal children in their current positions for the time being.  Any sudden and uncalled for movement would draw attention to themselves, and they needed to be alive and well so as to take back their kingdom and in doing so save their people.  Relena obviously understood that, but he could sense the seething guilt that came with staying stationary.  She wanted to be there for her people, she wanted to grieve for her people.  Yet her current situation in life called for her not grieving about people so far away.  His heart went out to her.  To both the siblings.

"You mustn't do anything rash Relena.  The right time is upon us.  Just not yet.  You are too kind Relena.  You are also too unselfish and selfless for your own good if I do say so Miss."

Relena gasped.  _Too unselfish??  Here she was cavorting on the other side of the world in some preppy rich school and Pagan denoted her unselfish.  __Was he on medication?  "You're very wrong about that Pagan!"  Relena snapped half angry at herself and half angry at Pagan for suggesting her of being of the like._

Pagan interrupted her easily, "You are too unselfish Miss Relena in that you will not do anything rash that could quite possibly hurt your people more than the current situation that they are in would."

"But Pa-"

"No Miss Relena.  You are a Peacecraft, and my opinion stands.  You are too unselfish to leave your people defenseless.  I know that when the time comes you will find a loophole...a way to defend your people and still uphold your family's true ideal of pacifism.  I just know it."  Pagan was such an old knight.  Although he was a butler he just oozed nobility and eloquence.  And Relena loved him ever so much for it.  He was like the grandfather she'd never had.

"Thank you for the compliment Pagan.  But that doesn't put my heart any more at rest.  Have you heard from Milliardo?"  Relena glanced at the clock she could see across the hall.  The concert started in five minutes.  She needed to end the conversation soon and probably sprint her way to the auditorium.  She pocketed a few more quarters into the phone wanting to churn out just a little more information from Pagan.

"Not for a few weeks Miss.  He'd just been promoted to Lieutenant last time I talked to him.  He said that it would only be a short while before he'd be ready to talk _business with you."  Pagan had said it.  He'd said the code word that was like money to a pauper, music to a deaf man, colour to a blind person.  The word __business meant that once the two were reunited they could plan their way into the Cinq Kingdom and than overthrow the Romefellar Organistaion. _

Relena breathed a sigh of relief.  "That is music to my ears Pagan"

"I know Miss.  You must understand why you must not do anything sudden or drastic that will draw attention to yourself right?"  Pagan had finally gotten Relena to see the sense she already knew but had been unwilling to admit.

Relena nodded, then voicing her confirmation.  Pagan's voice cut through the line once again.  "Ah Miss Relena are things okay at your new school?"  The question seemed innocent but Relena had the feeling that Pagan was wanting to know whether or not anybody had suspected her of her true identity.  She couldn't afford to let him worry anymore than he obviously already did so she refrained from telling him about the break-in incident.  Instead she told him things were fine, in fact they were great and in doing so said her adieus to the butler who had been her guardian angel through thick and thin ever since they'd left the Cinq Kingdom and parted ways.  He'd been both hers and Milliardo's protector and for that he would always be one of the few people Relena held close to her heart.

Hanging up the phone, Relena let out a breath she'd been unknowingly holding.  She would make no rash decisions.  And she would not draw attention to herself.  Cinq civilians had died today, but Relena had to deal with the news and also with the idea that probably many more would die if her and Milliardo were to go through with the promise they'd both made to each other the day they'd escaped Cinq.  They were going to return to the Cinq Kingdom and overthrow Romefellar.  And they would rule the nation as their parents and Peacecraft sovereigns before them had ruled the peace-loving nation.  They would uphold the ideal of pacifism.

****

Relena burst out of the phone box finding a concerned Wufei still waiting on the couch.  "Where's Sally?"  She'd seen Sally walk past the phone booth towards the common room while on the phone.  But she was nowhere in plain sight, and Wufei was still sitting as stiffly as ever on the couch he should have leaned back into.  It looked so damn comfy!

Wufei stood up.  He was a young man of honour and had been unsettled upon seeing the girl his friends seemed to respect and honour so highly upset.  He had wanted to see her safe and sound and was taking it upon himself to escort her to the concert safely.  Relena looked okay now.  She was at that very moment straightening her skirt and shirt, fanning out the wrinkles gained from sitting on the couch and leaning against the telephone box.  She'd been in there for sometime.  Whoever she'd talked to had calmed her down well enough and she seemed a different person altogether now.

"I will escort you to the auditorium."

Relena looked at him smugly.  Duo was right in saying that Wufei for all his anti-feminist ranting was indeed a ladies man.  She nodded at him.  "Escort is not the word you should be using Wufei.  We have about a minute to make a dash for it to the other side of the school.  You up for it?" 

Wufei smiled a small yet genuine smile.  Grabbing her hand he led her down the stairs of the girls boarding area and through the shortcuts he'd memorised to the auditorium.  The two panting teenagers made it to the nearly overly filled auditorium just in time for the first performance, a Christmas carol performed by the choir.  Wufei left Relena at the back of the stage, spotting Duo who was waving like a madman for him to come and relinquish the seat he'd so kindly saved for the Chinese boy.  Wufei decided to take Duo out of his misery.

****

Relena bent over, panting from the sprint her and Wufei had made.  She really needed to stop skipping her physical education classes.  She truly paid for the lack of exercise whenever she tried to do something even overtly physical.

"Relena!"  Quatre squawked coming to stand beside her.  "Where have you been?  Reganald has been screaming 'bloody murder' for the last half hour."

Relena groaned.  God!  She hated that uptight music teacher.  He really did have one giant pole stuck up his ass.  "I had a couple of things to do Quatre."  Quatre eyed her unbelievingly.  Relena rolled her eyes.  Now was not the time to give Quatre a status report.  "I'll tell you about it later okay?"

Quatre nodded although he still couldn't help but be concerned.  The choir had finished their Christmas carol and had moved off the stage leaving the Master of Ceremonies to introduce the next act.

"Quatre that's our cue."  Trowa uttered from behind Quatre.  He held Quatre's violin out to the blond boy who'd been so anticipating the concert.  This was the Arabian's niche.  And Trowa didn't want his friend to miss out on something that the boy spent so much of his spare time preparing for.  Relena shook Quatre's arm, wishing him good luck and eyed the two young men as they made their way out to the front of the stage.  Half-lidded cerulean blue eyes trailed an outline of the two young men performing.  One a short blond Arabian boy with an exceptional talent for music had his head thrashed wildly back as his fingers untamedly moved up and down the strings of his violin.  His small yet long pale fingers seemed to move completely to a time all of their own.  While Quatre's tall friend held a small narrow and long piece of metal, a flute.  His long slender fingers moved evocatively up and down the instrument as a sweet harmony was sourced in a duel-like dance that matched Quatre's own dark and brooding tune.  The two really were riveting together, moving in time to their own music, in their own worlds.  It was bliss.

Quatre and Trowa's duet came to an end all too soon and Relena found herself facing Reganald's wrath.  He'd found her during the duet and once the audience started clapping in a massive applaud for her two friends, Reganald started yelling at her.  "What time do you call this Miss Dorlian?  You're late and you're up next!"

Relena shrugged.  She was there after all.  The old bag really had to learn to shut up and take it.  She'd shown up and that should be good enough.  She didn't even want to perform really.  And she still felt completely lousy about the rioting incident in the Cinq Kingdom.  If these people knew the truth Reganald wouldn't be forcing her to sing in but a few minutes, and those people out there wouldn't look at her with such disdain.

Relena observed from the crowd hers and Quatre's new friends.  Duo was on his chair amongst the audience making a roaringly loud stomp, waving his hands in the air while chanting a very audible mantra of "Q and T rock!" and "Way to go Q and T!"  She watched as Wufei sat with Sally clapping his hands together with a little more force and noise than was necessary.  He looked as though he now had a new respect for the duet.  They had played well together.  Like a team.  They seemed to have read each other through the music playing remarkably well through even the difficult to reach notes.  She recognised a dark head of mussed hair sitting near Duo trying not to draw attention to himself.  Heero looked up at that moment, seeming to have sensed Relena's eyes on him.  Intense cobalt blue eyes met Relena's own thoughtful cerulean blue.  Relena couldn't help but flush.  She hated being caught staring, but it was kind of difficult not to stare at Heero.  He was the type of guy you stared at without realising so.  He was the masculine version of beautiful...in an unkempt, serious, and intense cold kind of way.  She was brought back from her musings by the tug of annoyance on her dress shirt from Reganald.  "It's time Relena."  He no longer looked angry with her.  Instead he looked worried.  "Good luck Relena.  You can do it.  Please don't screw up."  _The guy has serious issues when it comes to sentimentality.  He really needed to cool down, let loose for a little while.  He had pushed her into this after all.  Relena grumbled a little bit as Reganald pushed her towards the stage just as the Master of Ceremonies finished introducing her._

"...and without any further ado I'd like to introduce to you Relena Dorlian, who's singing a solo this evening with the school's choir to back her up.  Though I hear she doesn't need it!" The Master of Ceremonies cheesily added the last bit much to Relena's dismay.  She visibly winced as the MC winked at her before sashaying off the stage.  _Pervert!  _

The spotlight was on Relena as she stood in the middle of the stage, the blurry faces of the choir behind her and the indistinct faces of the audience in front of her.  She clasped her hands together and cleared her throat, trying to remember what in the heck she was meant to be singing.  Ahhh....bingo.  She recalled the words to the music as the orchestra started up in the background, and she visibly wooed as she heard Quatre's violin in the background playing his own solo role amongst the many instruments performing.  Opening her mouth to sound out the notes in a sweet melody uniquely her own, Relena sang the quiet yet haunting melody that was hers for the evening.

" Midnight in winter.  The glowing fire....  Lights up your face in orange and gold...."  Relena paused as Quatre's violin cut through echoing her own harmony before hand.

"I see your sweet smile.  Shine through the darkness.  It's line is etched in my memory.....So I know you by heart..."  the audience's attention was drawn to the blond violinist as he once again echoed what Relena had just sung.  Relena smiled absently smoothing her skirt down as she recalled the next lyrics.

"Mornings in April.  Sharing the secrets.  We'd walk until the morning was gone....."  Gaining confidence at the eerily quiet auditorium Relena raised her hooded eyes to meet that of her audience's.  "We were like children.  Laughing for hours.  The joy you gave me lives on and on...Cause I know you by heart."  

Unknowingly Relena's gaze at the audience met Heero's own.  Locking eyes with him, Relena sang the second verse of the song, not wanting to break her gaze with his own intensely pensive one, afraid that if she took her eyes off of him for a moment he would disappear.  He seemed to be the type of person who would vanish into thin air if you didn't pay close attention to his whereabouts.

"I still hear your voice, on warm summer nights.  Whispering like the wind...."  The choir joined in at the background finally, allowing Relena to regain some of her composure.  Singing in tune could be daunting at times, especially in an auditorium filled to the brim as much as this one was.

"You left in autumn...The leaves were turning.  I walked roads of orange and gold."  Relena turned to where she knew Quatre was and watched as his bow moved gracefully up and down his violin as he echoed her own melody.  "I saw your sweet smile.  I heard your laughter.  You're still here.  Beside me everyday.  Cause I know you by heart....Cause I know you by heart....."  Relena breathed a sense of finality letting the honey that she'd let drip in the musical pitch of her words on the last phrase she sang in time to Quatre's violin movement.  "Cause I know you by heart......"

The auditorium did not break out into a wild applause, but the audience was sufficiently pleased with Relena's very sweet yet haunting voice that had just permeated through the walls of the auditorium.  Duo, was of course the first to clap jubilantly just as he had for Quatre and Trowa.  And when Relena looked up from the bow she'd just taken she found Heero still in his seat, staring at her with that blank analytical look of his.

She pulled an invisible flinch, tearing her gaze away from Heero's and made her way off the stage.  Well, she'd done it.  She'd managed to perform without worrying about the stage fright.  And once she'd gotten up there and sung half the song she realised that she hadn't really worried or wasted time trying to figure out if any of the parents in the audience recognised her true heritage.

****

Heero watched as Relena made her way behind the stage, her golden halo of annoying braids bobbing around as she briskly moved away.  He'd been unbelievably surprised at her performance.  So far for Heero, Relena was something of a superwoman.  She was smart, funny, kind, could drive a car and had an obviously pleasant singing voice.  No, correction.  Not only pleasant, but haunting, beautiful . . . and filled with much sadness.  Too much sadness for a girl of seventeen.  He joined the crowd in their applause of her as Duo punched him in the shoulder trying to get him to join in his ecstatic cheering for the girl they now considered their friend.  But what was she to Heero?  As much as he'd liked to call Relena his friend, how can you do so if you've never trusted anyone?  He wasn't even sure if a 'friend' is what he even wanted to consider her as being.  Friends weren't meant to make you feel queasy, or uneasy, or uncomfortable, or terribly warm all over.  But this 'friend' did.  And it was worrying for Heero.  For he had a job to do and right at that moment it was becoming increasingly difficult to do.

****

Relena slumped against the corridor wall outside the auditorium only vaguely listening to the rest of the evening's performers.  Her head was a flurry of so many things.  The topic most highly ranked on her list was her conversation with Pagan and what would happen once her and Milliardo were reunited.  There were a great deal many things she wanted to do to Romefellar for the toll of lives lost in the Cinq Kingdom.  But, she was at a downer in that her ideals of pacifism clashed with the idea of beating the shit out of the organistion.  

Relena decided to leave the concert.  She wasn't in the mood for socialising tonight.  And Duo was bound to hound her about her talents or her lack of talent - or something like that.  And Relena wasn't really in the mood.  The guilt was eating her up to a great extent at present, and she felt that if she didn't leave the concert where there were so many people, that she would likely suffocate.

Before she could turn to go, a familiar bob of mussed dark brown hair had made its way before her.  Heero?  What was he doing there?  He was meant to be sitting in the audience still, watching the actual talented performers perform.  "Heero...what are you doing here?"

"Hn..."

Relena audibly groaned.  She hated when he did this.  His conversational skills really did suck.  In fact they left nothing to be desired of at all.  Relena turned to leave Heero standing by himself, just as she had the night of the dance.  But his long and surprisingly delicate fingers wrapped around her wrist once again.  "Don't do this again Relena.  It's boring."

"No.  It's deja vu!"  Relena smirked, trying to loosen Heero's hold from her wrist.  His grip wouldn't budge.  It was no use, he had her in a typical death grip.  _And was that a death glare he was sending her??_

Heero loosened his hold on Relena and gestured towards the door.  "Walk you back?"

Relena looked up at him, unable to hold the surprise back.  "You knew....hey!  How did you know I was going to take off?"

Heero shrugged.  It was all part of this annoyingly odd connection he had with her.  His honed skills had noted the hurried way in which she'd bustled off the stage.  It was a dead give away for her trying to escape and evade the auditorium.  

Relena walked with Heero in a comfortable silence to the girls boarding area.  "You have a _nice voice Relena."  Heero was giving her a compliment.  Had the earth moved or something?  It wasn't much of a compliment actually, but it was a compliment nevertheless.  And one from Heero.  He barely ever congratulated or complimented people.  Actually he never congratulated or complimented people.  __So why the change?_

"Thank you Heero.  I really didn't feel like singing tonight though."

"You didn't the other day either."  Heero reminded her of her little breakdown in front of the main office the other day.  She smiled a little.  How observant of him.

"Yeah, well you know how you've got to deal with these things."

They stopped outside the girls common room. "Thanks Heero.  Although I can really take care of myself.  It was kind of you to walk me back."

Heero nodded.  He still had yet to work out why he'd decided to talk to Relena, though you couldn't really call what they'd been doing the past five minutes talking.  More like walking and thinking....and communicating silently....the communication of two souls.

Unexpectedly Relena tugged on Heero's shirt cuff. This would be the perfect moment for a kiss.   A chaste kiss of sorts.  But Heero wasn't ready for it, and neither was she.  Not in the fragile state she was in.  Instead she placed in his hands the lyric sheet Reganald had given her to memorise for the concert.  Heero looked at her in blank surprise.  "Night Heero."  He watched her until she until she was out of sight.  When her presence was no more, he opened up the ratty looking piece of paper.  It was tea stained and had been wrinkled and creased from being folded over so many times.

He read the words out loud to himself, their meaning imprinting themselves in his memory and in his reawakening soul.  "Midnight's in winter.  The glowing fire.  Lights up your face in orange and gold.  I see your sweet smile.  Shine through the darkness.  It's line is etched in my memory."  He paused and couldn't help but wince at the next lyrics, "So I know you by heart . . ."  Heero groaned.  These lyrics were a symbol of something, and Heero was absolutely dumb as to what the symbol was.  He was meant to excel in situations requiring quick-minded problem solving.  Yet there he was struggling to figure out the meaning of some pointless lyrics on a scruffy piece of paper.  Pocketing the paper in his jeans, Heero headed back to his own dorm with much to think about.

****

Inside her dorm Relena gave herself up to the grief she'd been so longing to shed ever since she'd watched the news footage earlier on in that evening.  She didn't cry.  She'd done too much of that already.  She did however curl herself up in a fetal position under her ancient like duvet and thought about the events of the day.  Silently she imagined herself crying and grieving for those that had died earlier on in the day.  They were scores to Relena's invisibly blood-stained hands.  She imagined herself grieving, crying, sobbing because of her impending situation, for her family's loss.  But most of all when she could not hold in the tears of grief anymore she cried for her people and the loss they had suffered that day.

//Oh, go away.  Make them go away.  Someday I know I will make them go away.  Make them go away.  Make them go away.  Someday I know . . .I will make my monsters go away.//

chapter ends...but it is tbc.

**_Author notes:__  The lyrics I put in here are from 'Out of Depth' on Everclear's 'Songs from an American Movie - Vol. Two:  Good Time for a Bad Attitude' album._**

_The lyrics to the song Relena sang at the concert come from the song 'I know you by heart' written by Diane Scanlon and Eve Nelson.  I got this from the now deceased Eva Cassidy's album 'Songbird'.  She's a wonderful singer and has a brilliantly haunting voice.  And I advise any of you who enjoy listening to any of Sarah McLachlan's songs or Dido's songs that you should buy her albums.  Her parents put several albums out on her behalf, and all of them are lovely.  My personal favourite being 'Songbird'.  But 'Time After Time' and her 'Live at Blues Alley' album are also beautiful works of musical talent._

**_Next time:  'A Christmas Interlude'.  Yes, that's right I'm getting into the Christmas spirit!  And so will all our favourite Gundamwing characters.  This chapter was angsty and sad enough.  Christmas here we come!!_**


	5. A Christmas Interlude's Beginning

A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles*

Chapter 5.1 - A Christmas Interlude

Usual Disclaimer stuff....I think we get the point that I don't own the show or its characters already.  If I did I would not be writing fanfiction. I'd be making another series of it for G's sake!

_Author Notes:  Just to be difficult I've divided this chapter into four parts.  Part One, Two, Three and Four.  Frankie and Elana Dorlian are Relena's foster parents.  They own a gas-station/garage and a diner (Dorlian Diner).  Rashid manages it, and Hilde works there part-time.  Frankie is still recovering from a heart attack he had earlier on in the year._

St. Michael's had shut its doors for the Christmas holidays.  Classes and dormitories were emptied.  The student-teacher body all but disappeared.  And the frosty bite in the atmosphere all but hinted at an oncoming siege of snow.

Relena's drive back to Treventville was uneventful to say the least.  It was her arrival however, that held the entire dramatization.  Her foster mother, Elana met her at the door of the Dorlian Diner a box of champagne flutes in hand.  "Mum?"

Elana relaxed immensely at the sighting of her foster daughter's presence. "Thank god you're here Relena."  In a matter of moments she had somehow loosened Relena's grip on her school satchel and suitcase and had instead put in its place the box of champagne flutes.  "I really need your help at the Winner's Christmas party tonight."

Relena eased the box in her arms onto the outline of her hipbone.  "Of course I'll help you mother.  I always help you with Quatre's Christmas parties."

Elana handed Relena another box.  This one was filled with crisp and clean white tablecloths that had been hired from the local Laundromat.  "It's not Quatre's Christmas party Relena.  You know better than anyone how he dislikes those things.  It's that wretched step-mother of his that throws them."

"That so-called wretched step-mother pays us a lot of money for catering them."  Relena chided her mother.  It was common knowledge that not many of Treventville's townspeople cared for Quatre's stepmother, Quatre himself especially.  Disliking a person was certainly rare for Quatre.  He always tried to see the best in people, even in people who were downright criminal.  But the new Mrs. Winner was a terrible piece of work.  She was the worst king of a snob, young enough and pretty enough to be mistaken for one of Quatre's many sisters, and worst of all she had Quatre's father wrapped around her perfectly manicured finger.

"Yes I know dear.  But that doesn't mean I have to like her any more for it."

Relena rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say mother.  What do you want me to do with these boxes?"

Elana led Relena back out to her car.  "Keys?"

"Coat pocket.  Sorry, but my arms are kind of full."  Elana reached into the tan pea coat Quatre had given her several years ago, retrieving the subject just spoken about.  She unlocked the door, allowing Relena to relieve herself of the weight in her arms.  "Can you drive these up to the Quatre's?  This is the last stuff to go up there.  Hilde's setting up already.  She'll be glad to see you and Quatre.  She's missed having you two around.  Actually we've all missed having you two around."  Relena smiled at her mother, turning to get in the driver's seat.  "Oh how silly of me!  Relena, give your old mother a hug."  Relena was enveloped in the warmness of her mother's slight body.  Relena leaned into Elana's embrace.  Elana may not have been her blood mother by birth, but the bond that had developed between the two over the years was likened to that of mother and daughter.

"I missed you too mum.  Even if I wasn't gone that long."

Elana brushed a sandy bang away from Relena's forehead, "Long enough for us to miss you."

Relena gave her mother's elbow a squeeze before getting in the car, "I'll be back in an hour."

As Elana watched Relena drive off in the pink VW Frankie had fixed up for her sixteenth birthday, she couldn't help but feel as though she'd missed a milestone point of Relena's growth.  She'd only been away a short while, yet she looked as though she'd gained the wisdom of an old maid, and the sadness of a spinster.  Something or some things had happened to Relena while she'd been at St. Michael's and they'd changed Relena somewhat.  And Elana wasn't sure if the change was for the better.

********************

The Winner estate was at the best of times a sprawling mass of pasture-like green.  But in the biting chill that was Treventville's wintertime it was something akin to a winter wonderland.  Relena had spent much of her childhood years roaming the Winner estate with Quatre in tow.  Climbing the numerous oak tees, skinny-dipping in the creek, playing hide and seek amongst the undergrowth…It was those sort of innocent memories that were important to Relena.  They were the type of memories that helped smudge out the glumness that had descended when her parents were murdered.

Relena gazed up at the daunting mansion.  _Mansions…_  She hated them.  They were so large.  Just big blocks of concrete with expensive art deco added to them.  But the Winner mansion Relena had always admired.  It had a sense of antiquity about it.  And it wasn't pitched out of concrete block.  Instead old-style tapestries (akin to Medieval times), antique oak furniture and slightly controversial yet beautiful paintings gave the sprawling home a warmness and style of its own.

"Relena, that you?"

Relena turned towards where the side door leading to the mansion's kitchen; where the voice had come from.  Hilde stood with her hands on her hips dressed in a ratty pair of overalls that were distinctly splashed with flour and maybe a now dried, but once runny egg yolk.  There was no jacket or coat shielding her from the cold; Hilde instead choosing to brave the forces of nature to greet her friend.  Perhaps a suggestion of her character…Hardworking, dedicated, caring, loyal to her loved ones, in no way superficial and above all, courageous.

"Hilde!"  Relena cried as she strode towards the person in question.  "You have no idea how much I've missed you…" Hilde shook her head as Relena went to hug her, "Uh uh, I'm covered in baking crap.  Unless you want to ruin your coat, I wouldn't recommend it."  Relena stepped backwards a bit, but couldn't help but grasp Hilde around the arms, a mirror of the familiarity and warmth that was shared between the two.  Hilde smiled at her.  She'd missed her friend terribly.  Things just hadn't been the same with both Quatre and Relena gone.  She'd had to put up with the other hick-town kids.  The majority of which would probably drop out of school before the end of the year.  In admittance, it had been quite lonely for her with her two closest friends gone.  Luckily between work at the Dorlian's gas-station and garage and the hordes of school work Hilde set herself to knowing, she hadn't had too much time to feel lonely or sorry for herself.

"So you're back for Christmas, but not for good?"  Hilde questioned, leaning against the snow-laden doorframe.  If Quatre's stepmother were to find the two of them at that moment she would have told Hilde off for letting so much cold air into the kitchen.  "Come on inside, unless you want me to get in trouble with you-know-who."  Hilde told her friend, pulling Relena by the arm of her tan pea coat.

"But I've still got to bring stuff in…." she began, but Hilde silenced her as she turned to face her friend once again.  This time a definite flush stained the usually creamy complexion of her skin.  "I've got something to tell you," Hilde said, getting right to the point at hand.

"Okay."

Hilde was silent, obviously a little embarrassed about whatever it was she was going to talk to Relena about.  "Oh come on Hilde.  It can't be all that bad."

Hilde smiled.  No, it wasn't at all bad.  Quite the opposite, really.

"I met someone."

"Here?"  Relena asked in startled disbelief.  "In Treventville?"  That was an impossible feat in itself.  Their hometown was such a small and uninteresting place.  And all the other teenagers their age were destined to grow up like their own hick-town parents.  "Impossible…"

Hilde shook her head impishly.  Not so impossible!  She had that wicked gleam in her eye, a sort of determined look you could call it.  "Uh uh."

'So, who is he?  And how did you manage to meet 'someone' here?  In Treventville?"  Relena questioned her friend, who was now idly wiping her dough-covered hands with a towel found lying near the kitchen bench top.

"I think he's staying here with Quatre, or something.  Cause I met him while coming down the hall from Quatre's room this morning – you know I wanted to catch up with him before his stepmum got all 'Commandant'-like on me."

"I wonder who he is…" Relena said more to herself than to Hilde.  Quatre hadn't mentioned to her that he was to have friends staying with him during Christmas.  Not that he was obligated to or anything.  An idea of who the person could possibly be flickered in the recesses of Relena's inquisitive mind.  Perhaps Quatre had invited the others back for Christmas…. Had it slipped his mind to tell her??  

"-I was coming out of Quatre's room when he saw me."  Hilde continued with the telling of her story.  "He teased me about paying Quatre an early morning visit.  I suppose he was suggesting that me and Quatre were doing the 'wild thang' or something like that…"

"Why would he think that?"

"I dunno.  I suppose it did look kind of fishy, me coming out of Quatre's room in the wee small hours of the morning."

Relena nodded in agreement.  Quatre's friend obviously hadn't found out about his sexual preference yet. "Okay.  Carry on."

"He winked at me suggestively…like he was saying 'someone's been getting some'.  And you and I both know that the day we 'get some' from Quatre is the day Mozart rises from his grave."

Relena couldn't help but chuckle.  True – true.

"Anyway for some reason I explained to him that me and Quatre were friends and nothing more.  He got to asking me why we were just that, and I said as plainly as possible that we were almost like brother and sister.  Oh!  That reminds me, when I said that he muttered something like 'Another one just like Lena.'  Did he mean you Relena?"  Hilde asked her friend, wanting to know more about the violet-eyed, braided boy she'd met earlier on in the day.

Relena had her suspicions of who of their friends from St. Michael's Hilde had met that morning.  "What did he look like?"

Hilde flushed.  His looks were certainly striking, but they weren't the most important thing.  For some reason it had been his charm and the wicked gleam in his eye that had won her over – although he didn't even know he'd been won.  "Quite tall, kind of lanky looking.  He's got these huge violet eyes that look kind of lazy, but you can tell are taking in everything around him.  And I suppose the most distinctive thing about him is his long hair.  It's kind of a chestnut brown colour and is pulled back in a braid that runs all the way down his back…."

Relena didn't even have to think hard to pinpoint which of her new friends had captured Hilde's attention.  "Duo."

"Huh?"

"His name's Duo Maxwell.  He goes to school with us at St. Michael's."  Relena explained.  She crossed her fingers that Hilde wouldn't go all girly on her and insist on hearing every singly minute detail about Duo.  Some things were left better unsaid.

"Duo Maxwell."  Hilde tried the name out on her tongue, liking the sound of it.  Now she had a name to go with the face.  "I like him."

Relena nodded.  "I like him too.  He's a good friend."

"Only a friend though, right?"  Hilde looked at her worriedly.  It was rare for her to look worried.  She'd always been too carefree and uninterested when it came to matters of the heart.

Relena nodded.  "You didn't tell me the rest of your story."

Hilde had begun flattening the contents of the dough she'd made into a square on the bench.  Relena wrinkled her nose.  Her own attempts at baking had never been that profound.  She preferred to stick with serving the food up.  Hilde however was quite talented in that she could cook, waitress, succeed in school and fix a car.  At the best of times Relena could ably change the tyre of a car.  And although she couldn't cook she made up with her smooth moves when it came to waitressing.  And her schoolwork wasn't too bad either.

Hilde talked as she flattened the dough even more so with a marble rolling pin.  "It's nothing really.  We kind of got to talking about silly things like Christmas and reindeer and how Quatre's always trying to do the right thing.  Trivial things really.  I guess you could say that the way he talked charmed me in a way."  She'd begun to plunge Star-like cookie cutters into the dough.  "Funny eh?  I never thought I'd be the type to fall for a guy after talking with him for just a couple of minutes.  Weird…"

Relena shrugged.  She wasn't one to talk.  The guy she liked was as unfriendly as people came.  He had a major attitude problem.  He didn't like talking much, if anything at all.  And the most common word you could get out of him was 'hn', and Relena didn't count the sound caused from gritting one's teeth together as a word.  But the way Heero made the sound so often, one could almost mistake it as one. …. 'part of his vocabulary'…..Relena mused.

"Hey Hilde, did Quatre bring anybody else back with him?"  Relena asked suddenly interested at the prospect that their other friends from St. Michael's might also be spending Christmas with the Winner family and friends.

Hilde tilted her head to one side, a raven bang flopping onto her forehead.  "Not sure…though Quatre's wing of the house did look kind of occupied more than usual this morning."

That was confirmation enough for Relena.  She wondered if Heero was amongst the others staying with Quatre.

"Hey, what's the time?"  

Hilde pointed to the clock near the door.  Relena's hour was almost up.  She needed to get back to the Diner to change for the evening.  "I've got to go.  Are you working tonight?"

Hilde shook her head.  "No way…I'm an invited guest you know!"

Relena smiled. She'd been invited also.  But Elana needed her help more.  And Mrs. Winner's Christmas party was after all just that – another Christmas party.  Waving at her friend, Relena called out as she made her way out the door, "It's good that you're a guest.  You can blow Duo away with those dance moves we learnt over summer."

Hilde shook her head at her friend.  Relena was only teasing.  She didn't however deny the fact that she was planning to 'blow Duo away'.  She'd wear a dress – nothing fancy of course, and boogie the night away.  She didn't plan on making a dramatic appearance or hang off Duo's every word. She did however plan to catch up with him and even ask him for a dance or two.  If they clicked they clicked.  Hilde couldn't help but silently pray that they did.  

He'd had such a charming smile.

********************

Relena trekked back to her car, her boots making a mushy sound as her feet pushed themselves into the flaky bits of snow laden on the ground.  Relena wondered what it would be like to have a Christmas without snow.  It seemed somewhat criminal to her; no snow at Christmas time.

Opening the door Relena forgot that the reason she'd driven to the Winner estate in the first place was so that she could deliver the boxes of champagne flutes and tablecloths.

Kicking at the ground, as though snow was actually laden on the ground, Relena couldn't help but moan a little in frustration.  "Nice one." She muttered.

Picking up the two boxes that she somehow managed to awkwardly balance in her arms, she turned to make her way back to the kitchen where Hilde was surely to tease her relentlessly about her featherbrain traits.  Not that she really was one.  She just tended to get a tad carried away sometimes.

"Ahh!"  She almost dropped the two boxes in her arms.  Upon turning around she'd promptly met the stature of the person she'd been pondering on while Hilde had chatted about Duo.  

Heero.

He stood no more than three feet from her, standing in a casual stance, dressed in jeans and what looked to be his own version of a suede pea coat.  His dark hair looked just as tousled as it always did, and his ingrained smirk was in place.  His eyes however, suggested his own surprise at seeing her.  If she hadn't met his own piercing gaze with her own inquiring one, she would be in question at his reaction to seeing her.

You could never tell a lie when it came to eyes.  Even with cold, distant and merciless ones.  Heero's eyes were no different.  Relena knew that if she weren't careful she'd lose herself in the midst of his Prussian blue eyes.  No matter how cold callous and unrelenting his stare was.

"Heero?"

He nodded at her.  Okay – well at least he'd acknowledged her presence.

"What are you doing here?"  She asked while struggling with the box of tablecloths.  Her balancing act had been jilted when she'd flinched in the surprise she'd felt when she'd first seen Heero.

"Staying with Quatre."

"Uh huh."  Her small hands attempted to push the box back on top. "For Christmas?"

He nodded once more.

"Are you going to the party tonight?"  She tried a new topic of conversation.

He shrugged.

Relena gritted her teeth in irritation.  She couldn't help but sarcastically think about how he was **such** the conversationalist!  He had **wonderful** talking skills.  In fact he could probably run for **conversationalist of the year** with the skills of diplomacy he had.

She started to walk towards the kitchen, wanting to leave Heero standing by himself, the way he'd left her by herself numerous times that term.

But he stopped her.

He was always doing that sort of thing to her.  Stopping her mid-stride.  With a word, a gesture, the glint in his eye.  It was disturbing this power he held over her.

And yet, she got an alarmingly strange sort of buzz out of it.  If he was capable of doing strange things to her, did that mean that she did the same to him??

Heero stepped in her path, pulling the top box she was carrying into his own arms.  "I'll help you."

He didn't have to say much.  Words weren't always needed between them.  Even though Relena sometimes wished he'd say more.  But she was smart enough to be content with his gesture of citizenship.

It was funny.  There were so many quirks to their relationship.  They could have been boyfriend and girlfriend.  But Relena wasn't even sure if they were friends.  

And she wasn't sure that she wanted to be friends.

She'd always had bigger plans for Heero.

As they trekked their way towards the kitchen, Relena studied his profile.  He probably knew she was staring at him.  Just as she knew when he was watching her.  Before he turned to meet her own gaze, she turned her head.  

It was like a game for her.  And for him. 

But with him here, in her hometown, amongst her friends and family for Christmas, she had the upper hand.  She stood an awfully favourable chance of winning the game this time 'round.  She turned this time to meet his own gaze.  There was a hidden longing in those eyes, masked by sheer determination not to give in.  Not to be weak.  Not to let desire – longing – and dear she say it, love get in the way of his mission.  Whatever the personal mission he had actually was….

"Thanks."  Relena hummed as he gruffly handed the box back to her.  "I'll see you at the party tonight."

"You're going?"

She chose her next words carefully.  "Well, I was invited.  But my mum needs me to waitress instead."

"You're working?"

She nodded.  They didn't say any parting words.  They only ever said what was in fact needed to be said.  She mused that he didn't often say what he really – deep in his heart wanted to say.

Maybe someday he would.  When he finally could face it.

Until then, Relena would wait.

Oh…he had such beautiful eyes.

*********************

End Part One of Chapter Five….tbc

_Author Notes: Sorry for taking such a long time to update.  My friend's mother passed away and it left me quite sad empty.  My aunty passed away the other night also, and that was another blow that added to crapiness that has been my holiday season.  What would really be uplifting is some awesome reviews! ^_^_

_Mara:  thanks for your awesome review/s they're really inspiring!_

_A belated Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year – may you prosper and have joy throughout 2002. =)_

_As usual, please read and review =)___

_Jooles*_


	6. A bit of Salinger brings two hearts toge...

A Boarding School Façade – by Jooles*

_Disclaimer – I think that we've got the picture that I **do not**__own Gundamwing, not matter how much I wish I dd.  Because if I did I wouldn't be sitting here writing fanfiction.  I'd be making another series for G's sake!___

_Author Notes:  Thanks for the lovely reviews last time people.  They were incredibly inspiring!  I wasn't going to put this out before I went on holiday, but changed my mind.  In response to the reviewer who asked about the English spelling of words (rather than the American spelling), I'm not from England, but my country was one of Britain's colonies all those years ago, and therefore I've been brought up learning in an education system that is based on Britain's. – Long explanation, but hopefully explains why words are spelt slightly different._

Chapter 5.2 – A Christmas Interlude Continued

Duo Maxwell had never been one to believe in divinities and other miscellaneous higher beings.  They'd never seemed to give him the time of day in the past.  He'd only ever believed in one God, that being the God of Death.  However after meeting a certain raven-haired personage earlier on that morning Duo had thought about revising his so-called beliefs, or better yet non-beliefs.

She hadn't been a great beauty.  What had him, hook, line and sinker though; had been the playfully wicked gleam in her hugely aware eyes, and the fiery way with which she retorted his in sinuous remarks.  It was a rarity for Duo to find a girl who knew when he was and wasn't kidding around.  Relena was one.  And this new girl, this friend of Quatre's just happened to be another.  He wasn't interested in Relena in the "girl-boy" way.  No.  Relena seemed to have her very own mini-soap opera going on with Heero, although his friend probably hadn't realised it yet.  Duo, in his own cunning way had happened to observe his two friends together but a few times.  They weren't obvious in their relationship like other couples he knew.  But there was definitely something there.  Whether it was 'sexual tension', or 'friendship', or the 'in-between phase'.  Duo had a feeling that the two were still stuck at the 'in-between phase' of their relationship.  And although Duo wanted to talk to both Relena and Heero about their whatever it was they had with each other, he wasn't brave enough to face the impending blow to the face if he asked Heero, or Relena's knack at dodging questions she didn't care to answer and turning the conversation into a dither about what he himself lacked.

No.  Duo was going to keep his nose well out of Relena and Heero's business.

Especially now that he had some of his own to attend to.

And that business specifically involved a slight young girl with raven bangs that shadowed her overly large yet sparklingly striking eyes.

He crossed his fingers that 'she' would be at the Christmas party that night.  

And still he couldn't bring himself to pray.

After all old habits die hard.

********************

Relena had dressed in the same white-shirt black-skirt ensemble that she'd worn to the concert.  For her, it was the same boring, tidy and professional looking ensemble.  Yet it would do for the night.  She wasn't going to the Winner Christmas party to dance; therefore she had no need for the dark blue dress her mother had sewn for her birthday last year.  No, the catering uniform was enough for a party where she'd be working as a waitress and not in attendance as a guest.

A wistful sigh escaped Relena as she tied up her practical yet completely boring Doc Marten shoes.  Yet they were the safe way to go for footwear that evening.  Full proof in that it was impossible for her to trip over in them; no matter how clumsy she was feeling on a particular evening.  And tonight was especial in that she desparately wanted all fits of clumsiness and awkwardness to cease.  It would not do if she tripped over in front of **him**.  Because if she did she'd stand a lesser chance of winning the game.

"Relena," Elana tapped a gentle knock on the other side of Relena's bedroom door.  "Are you ready to go yet?"

Relena smoothed a stray golden bang back from her face, before grabbing her pea coat and upping the pace of her walk so as to catch up with her foster mother who'd backed Frankie's pick-up truck out of the garage.

"Sorry for taking so long mum."  Relena said as she relaxed into the weathered vinyl covering of the pickup's seating.  "I think I'm still worn out from driving back this morning."

Elana glanced at her daughter while steering the pickup in the direction of the Winner's massive estate.  "Not to worry dear.  I'm sure Une has been taking care of the staff and the party just fine without us."

Relena raised an eyebrow.  Her mother had mentioned the name Une several times in passing conversation, but Relena still hadn't met her.  Nor did she know exactly what it was Une did for her mother.  "What's Une do for you mum?"

"Oh a bit of this, and a bit of that dear."  She tittered as they started the drive up the Winner's long and winding driveway.  "I originally hired her as a fill in waitress for Rachel.  I promoted her to manager quite soon after she started, just because her skills of organisation and diplomacy impressed me so much.  Honestly Relena, she's truly lifted a load off of my shoulders these past few weeks."

Relena stared at her mother a little bit disbelievingly wondering if finding such an employee for the Diner were a possible thing. "Where did you find her?"

Elana frowned.  "Here's the weird part."  Relena nodded for her to carry on.  "She came into the diner a couple of days after you started school looking for a job.  I still don't know where she came from, or what she's really doing here.  I mean who would want to come here to Treventville just to work in a Diner?"

Relena faintly heard herself agreeing with Elana's question.  "Yes, who?"  Something about Une the new manager just didn't seem right.  It wasn't silly for Relena to be a little cagey about a new waitress walking in off the street without any history or sign of revealing her history.  For Relena, a person like Une could mean bad news.

She resolved to check Une out during her Christmas break, and if she had to she would ring Pagan to let him know about the peculiar waitress turned manager.

By the time Relena and Elana arrived at the Winner mansion the party had obviously been going for an hour or two.  Elana had put Une in charge of running the background festivities that evening.  Background festivities involved serving the food that was cooked in a presentable fashion, making sure the guests ate on time, clearing the guests dishes away, keeping the flow of meals (entrées, appetisers, mains, deserts, coffee and tea) running steadily, making sure the bar staff did not run out of alcohol, cleaning up at the end of the party (usually the next morning), and doing the hefty amount of dishes at the end of the night.  Elana had decided to take a step-back from the action that evening.  Une was apparently such a 'wonderful' worker that Elana now saw herself with an opportunity to actually attend the Christmas party for the first time since the family had moved to Treventville.

The Christmas party itself was the main event of the year in Treventville.  It was the event that was anticipated by the majority of the town's meagre population, Relena included.  According to Quatre, the Winner family had thrown an annual Christmas party inviting Treventville's civilians and the Winner's own family, friends, business acquaintances and clients for aeons past.  The thing that Relena and even Quatre found ironic about the Winner family throwing Christmas parties was that the family themselves didn't celebrate the holiday they threw a major party for.  Every year.

The parties were extravagant, and since Mr Winner's marriage to the new Mrs Winner, the parties had become more showy, more excessive and much more expensive.  The expensive bit was of course to the Dorlian's benefit.  The more money Mrs Winner spent on food, decorations, alcohol, and other party necessities; the more Frankie and Elana cashed in.

And despite having worked at first as a kitchen hand and finally a waitress when she finally was of age, Relena thoroughly enjoyed helping out her foster family's business.  It kept her busy, and gave her a major sense of normalcy that she sometimes felt was lacking without the drudge-type work to fill in the time.

The party as stated before was in full swing by the time the mother and daughter team arrived at the Winner estate.  The mansion itself was set aglow by the meticulous arrangement of elegant yet classic looking fairy lights.  A multitude of cars were parked out the front and Relena wistfully smiled as she admired the group of ladies and gentlemen entering the estate's main lodging.  They were dressed in elegant and undoubtedly expensive eveningwear, singling them out as being either friends of the Winner's or business clients.

Relena herself, almost entered through the front door, but Elana's tugging on the sleeve of her pea coat stopped her in her tracks.  Literally!  The new layer of snow on the ground was so thick and fluffy it was basically a trek from the pickup to the mansion.

Mother and daughter entered the mansion from the kitchen side-door.  After all servants (and they were for the night) were known to be there, but it was bad taste for them to be both seen and heard.

Elana left Relena to her own devices as she went in search of Une.  Relena herself drifted towards the ballroom, grabbing a café style slip of a nothing apron which she wrapped around her skirt.  Before she'd even made it halfway out the kitchen door, Quatre and Hilde cornered her, sheer determination pasted on their made-up for the evening faces.

Hilde was dressed in a very flattering yet practical black dress that swirled at her knees, accentuating the small yet defined muscles that were her lower legs.  Quatre looked just as pleasant in a spiffing impression of a black tuxedo.  Maybe it was Armani; maybe it was some other flash fashion brand.  Whatever it was, it looked expensive and probably had been.  Her two friends both looked very grown up and dare she say it done up for the evening.  

There had never been a time when she'd felt more frumpy and plain than ever.  And to her own amused and shocked delight, she liked the alternative aspect to her personality.  For, it was with anticipated dread that she imagined how she'd have had to dress up for a multitude of parties and formal dinners and outings more than once a week if she were still living as her true namesake in the Cinq Kingdom.  As selfish as that did sound.

"Evening Relena," her two friends chorused in unison.

Relena glared at the two of them behind slitted cerulean blue eyes.  "Evening to you too.  What do you want?"

Hilde mock gasped.  Quatre muffled a chuckle.

"Oh come on, you're up to something.  I can see it plain as day."  Relena said while tying the knot of apron with a force not needed on such a garment.  "Now one more time, what's going on?"

Hilde sighed.  Relena was being a priss.  She hated it when her friend was in such a mood.  She was generally pretty down to earth and playful in the company of her friends, but the occasional pangs of moodiness dampened Relena's relations with those closest to her.

Quatre reached into the inside of his tux, and pulled out a small yet skilfully wrapped object.  He handed it to her, waiting to see her reaction upon opening the gift.

"What's this for?"  Their friend asked blandly.  "It's not Christmas yet."

"We know that silly!"  Hilde piped, helping Relena unwrap the present herself.  There was no way in hell that she was planning to stand around all night waiting for Relena to unwrap the present her and Quatre had jointly bought.  "We wanted to give you your present early though…. figuring that you're not going to have much of a Christmas party and all.  Our treat."

Relena grimaced.  She never had much of a Christmas party anyway.  Truthfully she didn't mind.  She couldn't help it if to her friends it looked as though she minded.  A lot.

The wrapping finally fell away revealing a worn, weathered and musty smelling book.  Relena gasped "A first edition…." She murmured.  And on opening the cover of the book the gasp and murmuring beforehand was once again echoed.  "A signed copy…"

She looked dazedly up from the book now gripped quite tightly in her small yet delicate hands.  "Thank you Hilde, Quatre.  This means so much to me…. I'm not sure how I put into words just how much this gift means to me."

A shared look of recognition and understanding passed between Hilde and Quatre, both glad that the present had not only lifted Relena's agitated mood, but had proven itself as a token of their friendship to the girl who as straight up and down as friends came had her own secrets she had yet to confide in them with.  Well, half of them anyway.  Quatre knew some of Relena's secrets (the big one included), but only a marginal number of them.  And he was sure that in recent weeks she'd stown some more skeletons in her already skeleton filled closet and it was more or less both of their faults.  For Quatre, because he'd become distracted with a newly formed close friendship, and Relena because she'd insisted on keeping to herself.  Both of them never a good combination.

Relena looked up from the page she'd found her eyes trailing, remembering that she had work to do.  She shoved the book into Quatre's hands telling him to "look after it" for her, and with that went to do what she'd originally left the kitchen to do.  Waitress.

***********************

From a shadowy corner of the ballroom, Heero Yuy had watched the exchange between the three close friends with wry humour.  So Relena was a Salinger fan….  The small quirks and oddities about her had begun to make him see red.

This was a girl, no correction, a young woman with dimensions.

Many dimensions.

And they were all of the three-dimension kind.

Which was why Heero was finding it increasingly more difficult to be a reliable business partner that bowed down to his client's every whim and need.

And with the sighting of Une, a major player, and the loyal opposition, Heero's own suspicions and his clients had been more or less confirmed.

The question that left to be answered was whether or not Heero would actually let his client know the full extent and status of his discovery; or if he would manipulate the truth in doing so.

If only Relena had been a two-dimensional girl.

Things would have been so much easier.

*************************

Relena had been in and out of the kitchen over twenty times that night.  As the dessert came to a close and the grown up personages in attendance upped the consumption of alcohol, Relena's workload became less and less.  There was but tea and coffee to serve and dishes to do, and then maybe she'd get to go home early.

Une turned out to be just as her foster mother had described her as being.  She was certainly an excellent organiser.  A chaotic event like the Winner Christmas party could possibly take years off one's life.  Yet Une had taken the night all in her stride.  And in doing so, the behind the scenes work of the catering staff had had very few if any hitches and mishaps about it.

Relena respected Une, for her skills at running such a mad-like event.  That didn't mean she wasn't weary of her.  Anybody who skipped into Treventville on just a whim was reason to suspect.  Especially if they settled for a job as a waitress in not only an unexciting hick town, but her particular unexciting hick town.

It just wasn't done.

Placing what she hoped would be the last set of dessert bowls in the kitchen she wandered back out to the ballroom where the band was now in full swing.  The guests were also in full swing (literally) not to mention.

From the sidewall of the room, Relena studied the partners dancing and those not quite dancing, but attempting to do something of the like.  She herself couldn't help but imagine a certain dark and brooding young man whom she hadn't had the chance to dance with last time she'd attended a dance.

"Tall dark and handsome come and get me…." She murmured wickedly to herself.  "Come and dance with me tall dark and handsome…" Her small and pretty coral shaded lips curled up in a Cheshire cat like smile as she tried to pinpoint the person she was thinking of.

So caught up in looking for the specifically tall dark and handsome young man that when he came to stand in front of her she didn't know what to say or do.

Was he just some sick fantasy her bored mind had materialised?

No.  That wasn't possible.  Nor was she crazy enough for that sort of thing to happen to her.

"Evening Heero."  She said in a surprisingly smooth and calculated voice, much to her delight.  At least she hadn't made a fool of herself.  Yet!

Heero nodded at her.  Shaking her head she let out a barely suppressed tsssk sound.  Couldn't he at least attempt some kind of greeting?  A hi, hello, good evening, good morning, hey or how's it going would really make her day.

He cleared his throat as he handed her something.  Relena looked down at the object, recognising it to be the book Hilde and Quatre had given her for Christmas.  She thought she'd given it back to Quatre for safekeeping that evening….

"Quatre wanted me to give you this.  He said he might not see you later on this evening."  Heero explained as she thumbed mindlessly through the book, wondering at the same time what Heero thought of her selected reading material.  He already knew that she had a thing with Cinq Kingdom history; she wondered what his opinion (there was bound to be one) would be of her choice of literature.

"Salinger?"  He threw the question out deadpan.

Relena shrugged, smiling a little at the need to win whatever game he challenged her at.  Would she win this one??  "Yes.  Have you heard of him."

"Hn…. Of course I've heard of him."

"Have you read it?"  She inquired fiddling with a dog eared page, which she noted was also the source of her favourite quote.

Heero was silent for a long stretch of what were just moments in time.  "Yes.  Many times."

Relena met his own truthful cobalt blue gaze.  Maybe no one would win the game this time round.  After all this was one of the first times, if she counted properly, that the two of them were as equals on a subject of common interest.

Before she thought any more on the manner Heero went to turn away.  "Heero?"  She called out to him.  "Thanks for returning the book."

Heero turned back around, ceasing his abruptness to leave.  _"What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.  That's all I'd do all day.  I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."_

Turning to leave with an air of finality this time, Relena simply gazed at his retreating form.  He had aeons about him.  And anybody who had read J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye deserved not to be labelled.  And it was there and then that Relena resolved not to label Heero and to cherish that he'd just given away a hidden piece of himself he usually kept so well caged.

If she were around long enough she'd make sure she discovered more of those intricate pieces of his personality.

Because when he revealed himself truly to her long enough, she felt as though she'd met a soul of her own equal and a like mind she could spend eternity meandering with.

Turning away from the scene in the ballroom, Relena retreated to pick up the remaining desert dishes as the majority of the partygoers entered the ballroom, leaving the beautifully prepared and just plain scrumptious meal behind.

Getting to the guests tables was another matter though.  She found herself weaving her way in and out of the myriad of people, when she finally and quite timely careened to an oncoming person.  –She'd made it almost through the entirety of the evening without tripping over, but the person who she crashed into had a tallness and broadness about them that offset Relena's equilibrium.

"Ahh…." She muttered as she felt herself and the other person tumble on the ground together.  So embarrassed with her predicament that she flushed what the makeup companies might call a new shade of red.  Standing up and readjusting her stance as best she could, she lent her hand to her partner in clumsiness offering them her help at readjusting his footing on the ground once again.

"I'm so sor-"  She began to say and stopped mid sentence.  The book she had yet to safely stow away fell and landed with a gentle thud on the ground she'd just picked herself up from.

She stared at the other person involved in the random act of clumsiness, unable to form a single word but the one imprinted on her mind.  "Milliardo?"  She said in a strained whisper as she met the unmistakeable icy blue eyes that were those of her older brother's.  

He'd grown into a fine young man.  Broad and tall with beautiful long platinum bonde hair, a shade lighter than Quatre's.

She didn't know why she instantly recognised her blood kin.  Maybe it was the unmistakeable bond held only by siblings; maybe it was the fact that he looked so much like what her father did when he was Milliardo's age.  Or maybe it was the fact that she'd been waiting for this moment of seeing him face to face for so long, that she'd dreamed the whole bumping into long-lost brother incident.

But the press of his royal bred hands in the form of a familiar squeeze on her elbow told her that this was no dream.

"It's been a long time Relena."

*********************

_Eugh!  A cliff-hanger, my first._

_To Nonsequitur whose my new beta and who totally rocks:  I couldn't wait to put this out, however will update your changes once I get back from vacation._

_To everybody else:  Thanks for the awesome reviews, they cheered me up a whole lot.  And things are looking up for me.  I'm going on summer holiday tomorrow and will hopefully get Tiger Woods' autograph at the golf open I'm going to go to at the end of this week.  –Wish me luck!_

_Thanks to everybody else who reviewed-babyblonde5333 you're review was very touching, Silver Wing, death angel,__Empress Sarah-sama, Icy B. Discordia, Ley, Angel of the Stars, kay, Christine aka Pink Cloud, MaraLaeh Lynn, person, Heero Luver, LSR-7 and of course Nonsequitur whose feedback was exceptionally helpful.  Thank you thank you thank you! ^_^_

_If you having any questions regarding the fic please don't hesitate to email me at jooles_baby@yahoo.co.uk.  And please leave your email in your review if you'd like me to send you notice of when I next update._

_Ja ne!_

_Jooles*_****


	7. Making connections....

**A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles***

_Disclaimer:  I don't own Gundamwing yadayadayada blahblahblah...._

**Chapter 5.3 - continuation of a Christmas Interlude **

_Author's Notes:  Sorry  for the long wait in between chapters.  I went on holiday and than had a massive case of writer's block to contend with.  Grrr...!  And than on top of that I had [and still have] ruddy family problems and work and as of next week school to deal with.  Oh well....thank god for peaceful weekends with the family MIA!  ^_^_

_Also note that the first part to this chapter has quite a bit of Une and Heero in it._

Dedication:  This is for my younger [but not little] brother Ben who left for _boarding school_ *ironic huh?* yesterday morning, and despite the fact that he annoys the hell out of me, he's my only brother and I _wuv_ him!  This is for you Pip old chap!

**********

Heero Yuy was distracted.  And being unfocused on the job was something of a problem.  A spy and sometime assassin could not afford to be preoccupied.  Distractions could quite easily get the killer killed; especially in his messy line of work.  But after tracking down Relena under the not-so gentle insistence of Quatre a large portion of his thinking had been analyzing and re-analyzing their brief but seemingly momentous and equal grounding encounter.  

He hadn't planned on attending Quatre's stepmother's little Christmas party.  Then again, he hadn't planned on spending Christmas in Treventville.  That was until Dr. J pulled the usual strings and made a typically mentor like remark about how the client wouldn't stand for Heero's attitude.  And although Heero didn't like to admit it, it was true.  The client would not stand for his attitude.  Worse case scenario was that the bastardized client would send one of their own assassins to take care of not only Relena but Heero also.  Until Heero figured out exactly what he was going to do about the situation with Relena he wasn't going to do anything that could possibly disturb the peace....

The evening had been a giant pain in the ass in Heero's opinion.  He'd been forced to wear a tuxedo by that wretched woman who called herself Quatre's stepmother.  When he'd out rightly refused she'd started bawling.  When putting on the water-works show hadn't worked Mrs Winner had yelled at him, attempting to beat him down just like she had her latest husband.  Heero had surprisingly in the end given in to Mrs Winner if only to shut the woebegone woman up.  He had made a point however of giving her the infamous Heero Yuy death glare at each and every opportune time since the tuxedo outfitting.  And that had seemed to work wonders in that she refused to be within a five metre radius of him.  In a way she had won the battle, but he had won the war.

Heero had kept a close eye on Relena that evening.  He'd noted how much more comfortable and at ease she'd been since they'd been in Treventville.  That was of no surprise.  In actual fact it was expected.  After all Treventville was her home town in a sense.  It was where she grew up.  And it was in this sleepy hick-town that deep dark secrets were forged, sealed and kept even till the present day.  After sighting Une earlier on in the evening the suspicions of his client's had all but been proven.  All he needed now was a statement (preferably a confessed one, although an overheard one would do) to confirm the truth.  And upon finding out Relena's true heritage (if it was what was suspected) he would make a decision based on his emotions at the time.

Heero disliked his client a lot.  Whereas he was finding that as each day passed and the number of encounters with Relena mounted that he related to her in a way he hadn't been able to relate with others before.  Ever.  It was confusing this new emotion.  Besides, he had a contract to fulfill.  And he was still trying to figure out a way around the contract if he was going to rebel from not only the client, but Dr. J.  But such mutinous thoughts could be left for another time.

It was at that moment that the elder of the two women he'd been thinking about maneuvered herself strategically beside him in the shadowy corner he'd happened to place himself in.  Acknowledging her, Heero grunted her name. "Une."

"Heero.  How nice to see you.  Again."

Heero glared at the older woman.  Oh yes, they'd crossed paths before.  Many times in the past.  And each time he'd met her, he'd found himself liking her less and less. -Not that he'd liked her at all in the first place.  He wasn't paid to like people.  He was paid to investigate them and if the client wanted, eventually kill them.  It seemed however that Heero had some competition in the form of Une and her minions, whoever they were.  Heero couldn't help but snigger at the thought of Une having minions, she herself being one to the one and only Treize Khushrenada, heir to the all-important Romafellar Foundation. 

The reason Heero detested Une so much was more to the fact that they'd always been on opposite sides.  She'd always served primarily Treize and than Romafellar, while he'd generally always been a free agent.  Although with his latest client he was anything but.  It was a sticky situation, especially since Une was obviously doing in Treventville exactly what he was doing at St. Michael's:  sniffing out the assumed to be dead Peacecraft heir.  Not quite literally though.  And he hadn't had to try too hard with the sniffing part.

Une seemed quite cheerful. Actually she seemed almost brazen.  Obviously a sign of her wanting something from him.  "What a coincidence meeting you here, Heero."

Heero gave nothing away, leaving any observation Une might happen to make to her own imagination.  Shrugging he agreed with her,  "Just a coincidence Une.  Nothing more."

Une shook her head.  She evidently wanted to play her 'infamous know all and see all' game.  "Uh uh Heero.  You and I both know that there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye."

"Such as?"

Une shook her head again, auburn bangs shadowing her eyes.  "Tit for tat Heero.  You tell me something, and I'll tell you something."

Heero studied the woman beside him.  She was a player of games, just like Relena.  Except with this woman Heero rather preferred being a spectator rather than an active competitor.  Relena's games were much more agreeable.  

"One of the Peacecraft heirs are hiding out here.  In Treventville."  He said nonchalantly.  That was fairly patent.  But he wanted to make sure that they were both there for the same reason.  Otherwise he would be giving Une an upper hand.  And there was no way in hell he'd let something like that happen.

Une watched him closely.  "Of course Heero.  What else would people like you and me be doing in a place like this?"  She spoke to him in a peevish tone of voice.  In the past she only ever used that tone when she was getting impatient with his knack at evading (more likely ignoring) questions not in want of answering.

"I don't know Une.... taking time to smell the roses..."  He spoke back to her in a complacent way.

Une glanced at him, giving him a critical once over.  "Where'd you gain a sense of humor Heero Yuy?"

The quirk of a left eyebrow stated his puzzlement at her question.  Maybe the not quite sense of humor came from being around the likes of Duo Maxwell for a term.  There was even a possibility of putting it down to his competitive like bantering he'd developed while in the company of Relena.

"You know the girl, don't you?"  She asked in a dubious way.

"How's Treize?"  He asked changing the subject while at the same time not bothering to answer her question.  After all hadn't she said only moments before 'tit for tat'??

"Actually I don't know.  I've been out of contact with Romafellar and Treize since moving here six weeks ago."

Heero stared at her, willing her to look at him.  But she refused to do so, and instead contented herself with observing the swaying figures of various dancers and their partners in the centre of the ballroom.  They stood together in a comfortably tense-filled silence for mere minutes.  That was until Une pushed herself away from the side wall upon spotting a familiar long-haired blonde male whisking the Dorlian girl she'd been introduced to that evening out of the ballroom and into evidently somewhere more private.  "Well I'll be...."

The quirk of an eyebrow was evidence to Heero's ability at not missing a beat.  "Do you know who that is?"  He asked her.

Une nodded, a look of pure bafflement still marring her features.  "His name is Zechs Merquise and he and Treize are very close friends."

Heero snickered.  "If they're so close, then what's he doing here.... and what is he doing with Relena?"

Une looked at him questioningly.  "So you do know the girl?"

Heero ignored her, choosing to avoid being baited by her.

Une glanced at him.  Maybe there was a possibility of the two of them working together.  Une shook herself out of that nearly insane suggestion.  If she'd voiced her proposition aloud Heero would have done something quite characteristic such as glare at her, ignore her or worse stalk off in who knows what direction.  Besides he seemed to be linked with the Dorlian girl and Une wanted to know just what she was doing with Merquise.  She may have just hit the jackpot, her search almost being over.  She may just have discovered the so-called Peacecraft heirs presumed dead and long buried in the Cinq Kingdom's royal graveyard.

"Come on!"  She grabbed Heero's forearm and pulled him through the crowd of people in the ballroom and in the direction Dorlian and Merquise had headed.

Heero shook his forearm loose from Une's tight grip.  As far as he was concerned, Une was the enemy.  And one did not associate with the enemy.  Une, seeming to sense Heero's hostility paused mid-pace.  "Listen Heero, I don't like the fact that we're working together anymore than you do.  But we're both here for the same reason, and we both have personal interests here at stake."

Heero didn't like the way she termed his observing of Relena as a personal interest...although the way he'd been thinking only half an hour ago pointed to him actually having a _very personal interest in her.  Uncharacteristically Heero gave into what he supposed was Une's whim and followed her in search of this Zechs Merquise and Relena._

************

Relena had been so startled upon seeing Milliardo that she hadn't known what to say to her elder brother for an overly long stretch of seconds.  Instead she'd openly stared at him, replacing the image of her brother ten years ago with the much older and grown up image.  After stuttering her way through what she tried to make out as a greeting, Milliardo had asked her if she could take them some place more private to talk.  So thus they had dashed (well she had, he'd grown so tall that he strode while she skittered behind him) out of the dining hall, through the ballroom and into the West wing of the Winner estate.

It had been overly weird at first; conversing with her brother that is.  She found herself wondering what one says to someone so meaningful to them when you haven't seen them in over ten years.  But with the worries over the increasing riots in the Cinq Kingdom and the increasing amount of tension between warring factions over the governing of the Kingdom they hadn't been without topics of discussion.  And as it turned out he hadn't come to Treventville directly seeking her.  He'd actually come in search of Une.  Her instincts _had been correct.  Une wasn't really the fantastic waitress turned manager she played at being.  Instead she was very close to Treize Khushrenada.  __Very close apparently.  Milliardo had come in search of her because of something that had happened having to do with Treize while she'd been searching for the other heir to the Peacecraft throne.  Une hadn't known that the elder and foremost heir had been right under her nose for the longest possible time.  Treize had however.  And it was his knowing of Milliardo's situation and his in the end refusal to tell his uncle anything that had concluded with his being locked up.  Duke Dermail had not taken his nephew's disobedience well.  It hadn't really been disobedience, more so refusing to share a secret he promised his closest friend he'd keep.  Vaguely similar to her situation with Quatre.  Although after listening to Milliardo speak, Relena suspected that Treize knew a great deal more than she had ever planned on telling Quatre.  It actually sounded as though Treize had been planning their gaining back of the Cinq Kingdom with Milliardo.  He needed to talk to Une, as she was just as close to Treize (if not __more so) as he was.  And he needed her help to break Treize out of the Lake Victoria brig Duke Dermail had imprisoned him in.  They were about to disperse to go in search of Une, when they found themselves in actual fact confronted with both Une and Heero._

"Heero....Une??"  She vaguely heard herself asking before being interrupted by Milliardo.  Although they were blood kin, there was definitely a certain lack of respect on her brother's behalf towards her.  The next time they reunited, Relena decided that she would definitely have to have a little talk with Milliardo about the way he treated her.  After all she was no longer a five year old, and in her own humble opinion, believed herself to be quite a capable young woman.

Milliardo instead pulled Une outside the living area of the west wing for a few minutes, explaining to her the situation with Treize in private.  Relena looked around the empty living area in the west wing realising that Heero was still in the room.  "How do you know Une?"  She asked him.

Heero shrugged, his cobalt blue eyes refusing to meet her own cerulean blue.  Relena almost groaned out loud.... It would have been the perfect time for confessions from both persons, but Heero was doing his typical 'keep everything to himself' act.  So the two of them stood in the large, empty, vacant living area waiting for Une and Milliardo to return.  In silence.

The elder two of the group each holding closely guarded secrets of their own came back.  Une looked quite a bit distressed.  Confused was actually a better way of putting it.  Milliardo glanced at his younger sister.  "Une and I have to leave.  We will however, talk at a later date."

Relena nodded at her brother's statement, ignoring the fact that Heero was still in the room.  He obviously had some sort of connection with Une, which would mean that he was to a certain extent aware of her situation.

They'd have to talk.  And if Heero didn't want to than that was tough.  Because as far as Relena was concerned they both had some skeletons in the closet that they needed to clear out.

Bidding her brother and Une goodbye from a fire exit in the west wing, Relena wondered when exactly the next time would be when she saw her elder brother.  She would not be surprised if the next time she saw him, they'd be preparing something drastic.

For the time being Relena planned to concern herself with more domestic things.  Turning around, she found Heero leaning against the corridor's wall, his face shadowed in the darkness of the what was still a snow-laden night.  It was _almost romantic... their being in a deserted, darkened and lit only by moonlight corridor.  Romance however, could be seen to later on.  Because at that moment the two of them needed to talk._

Turning to her hopefully in the very near future 'friend', Relena told Heero the last thing he probably wanted to hear that evening; "Heero.  We have to talk."

**********

_Chapter ends...tbc_

****

**_Author's Notes:_**

_Thanks to:  Lady Scarlet-Une, Heero Luver, beth, Kitty, kay, Silver Wing, babyblonde5333, mya, Ley, Silver_Star, Hitomi Tomahome, Sirena Farren, kitty sage, Crystal, Goldberry, Eve, Lynderia, Okanami Masomi, Pink Ice, Icy B. Discordia, Ambrosia, MaraLaeh Lynn, Rei Ayanami, Winnie, ste', Sailor Sakura, Izanami, Kiddi Chi, Dark Mistress, Rebecca and tomoyoakajanelly.  The feedback you all left me was *heartwarming* to say the least, and you have no idea how long I was on cloud nine because of it! ^_^_

_Also my email finally got fixed so I'm back to my old address: sublime@wave.co.nz  _

_And I finally got Aim:  joolesbaby_

_Oh and please do check out the collaborative fic I'm working on with miaka mouse, kmf_chan, Sailor Calaeno and Patty.  It's called Waltz of Wings and I'm meant to be writing the next chapter *winkwink*...but I wanted to get this chapter out first.  Please do check it out.  We need some more feedback.  Here's the link: __http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=509538___

_As always reviews are asked for and would be much appreciated and they'll give me a much needed kick start to put the last chapter of the Christmas Interlude Part out!_

_Thanks for reading and reviewing!  ^_~  You guys are really the greatest!_

_Jooles*_


	8. A Christmas Interlude's Conclusion

A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles*

Author's Note:  Thanks to everybody for being so patient with this chapter.  Real life seemed to him me like a ten tonne of bricks and there's been no escape from it.  By the way peeps I procrastinated on an art history I had to write this chapter so I hope that it is worth it….*Jooles who's a bit huffy and has had to pull an all-nighter but is still posting*  ^_^

Dedication:  This chapter is for Sailor Celaeno whose birthday was yesterday.  Happy birthday chicky-dee! This also goes out to Moonkitty who I owe a chapter to and Blue Diamond, Dark Deity and Chibi Cat who have all been awesome in the support they've given me while being so sloooow with writing this chapter!

Anyhow enjoy the chapter folks and read the author's note at the end of it.  On with the show already

Chapter 5.4 [the last part to a Christmas Interlude]

Heero had been surprised at how up front Relena had been about the evening.  He'd been pondering just exactly how he would approach Relena with his questioning and had instead been greeted by her admission of actually wanting to talk to him.

Of course he was eager to listen.  Relena was making his task a hell of a lot easier to complete by actually being up front and motioning to talk to him.

Heero moved away from the shaded in gray wall that he'd been leaning against.  Relena stood by a window near the fire exit Zechs Merquise and Une had retreated from not too long ago.  The dim lighting captured the fragility and the significance of the moments careening down upon them.  Relena may have been a slight wisp of a thing, but her strength and will of character suggested a personality mountains more substantial.  She wanted to tell him her life story; her life according to that of a mere palm reading.  She wished she could and it was the wishing the compelled her to almost do so. Yet something held her back.  And that was her reluctance to give up the life she'd grown accustomed to.

Relena liked being anonymous.  Sure she didn't like how she couldn't always achieve at her full potential for fear of being singled out and eventually figured out.  But she liked how she could get up in the morning without worrying about making a speech in front of thirty thousand people.  She reveled in days and nights that passed over one into the other, completely and utterly seamless.  Relena felts as though her formative years had been made all worth the while with the friendships she had to rely on and the companionship, loyalty and unrelenting love of her foster family.

These were the sort of things she'd grown accustomed to.  And although she'd wanted to protect and see to the needs of the kingdom she was expected to inherit she couldn't bring herself to anticipate or even slightly entertain the thought of being a 'princess' once again.

"What about?"  Heero's inquiring interrupted Relena's own night-lingering meandering.

"Excuse me?"  Relena shook her head not quite aware of what Heero was asking of her.

"What do we need to talk about?"  Heero asked her, wanting her to explain to him as clearly and dead-pan like as possible just exactly what was going on.  Although he already had a fair idea of the underlying turbulence shielded beneath the festive happenings that evening.

Relena gazed out the windowsill looking as though she were still looking at her brother and Une's retreating forms.  Instead she was studying the condensation-sheered window pane, avoiding meeting Heero's probable glare.  She assumed that he was glaring at her.  He did spend more than half of the time doing so.  And the way he glared in an ironically relaxed way made Heero Yuy's famous death glare all the more hypocritical.  After all he'd attained a minor achievement in that he'd managed to make a cold, calculated morbid glare a completely natural facial expression.  And that was the kind of achievement that just happened to impress country girls . . . well even Relena was impressed and she wasn't the original country hick girl.  She had been born and raised (for the first seven years of her life) in Cinq's capital city.

"The night has made me forget..."  Relena told Heero cryptically while trailing a mindless pattern on the pane of the window.

Heero gazed at the girl before him.  She really were a young woman but the moonlight and stars outside and above them gave Relena a Wendy affect.  It seemed as though she'd been reduced to being ten years younger while at the same time still being able to achieve that responsible need-to-do-whatever-was right that was a pinnacle aspect of her personality.  And an aspect Heero thoroughly admired.

Relena looked up at Heero seeming to have remembered something. "I do want to talk to you Heero... and explain what this,"  she gestured towards the fire exit Une and Zechs had exited from, "this is all about."  She smiled skeptically at him, a half smile that seemed to be an effort to put on.  "But I need to cover for Une and.... I doubt if you're ready to know the truth yet."

It was all Heero could do to stop himself from leaning over and physically stopping Relena from leaving him in the dark.  He wanted to stop her, shake her, tell her that 'he knew', that he'd known for awhile, and that he didn't care.

Then he wanted to lean over, kiss her thoroughly, and then hopefully drag the truth out of her.  

He was on a mission.

Relena smiled at Heero before working her way away from their remarkably close-position beside the window pane.  Heero watched her exit from the window baring no emotion.

Before she'd exited completely, Relena turned around and lifted her hand as though she were going to wave at him.  But seeing the expression on Heero's face stopped her gesture.  Instead she smiled that smile he would never get sick of seeing, the one she seemed to use for him only.  "Night Heero...and Merry Christmas."  She said before leaving him in the dark and empty room by himself.  Alone to ponder when exactly things got so difficult.  The job wasn't meant to be so complicated.  Just a simple spy on girl, identify girl, eventually kill the identified girl type of job.  Relena Dorlian had changed that.  It was as though he was reassessing his outlook on life and had utterly no control over it.

And for some strange, undeterminable reason he wanted to let go....and lose control.

*************

The night had succumbed a thing or two for Relena.  She'd found that her instincts regarding Une had been spot on.  She'd reunited briefly with her brother.  Quatre and Hilde had given her a much loved first edition Salinger novel.  And Heero and she had almost had a moment.

Life was as good as it could be... although it could have been better.

She'd left Heero beside the window where she'd watch Milliardo and Une retreat to do the unknown.  She had almost told Heero the truth and she had resolved to eventually do so.  But she'd remembered just as she'd resolved to let Heero in on the truth that up until thirty minutes ago Une had been kept the Winner Christmas Party running smoothly.  Now with Une gone Relena had to cover for her.  

And Heero had had that funny glint in his eye that made Relena rethink telling him right at that particular moment.  She wanted to cement their 'friendship' a smidgen more before endangering him with her secret.  And she wanted him to be able to trust him enough so as to actually tell her his own secret.  Whatever it was.

So Relena headed back to the party anticipating a mountain of dishes and not being able to hit the hay until some ungodly hour.  And she'd thought she might be exempt this Christmas.

Not a chance.

Well at least she'd get a sleep-in in the morning.  It was Christmas and if you couldn't sleep in on Christmas morning, when could you sleep in? 

Relena had waved at Duo and Hilde as she passed them on her way to the kitchen.  Hilde looked to be having a genuinely good time.  Actually they all did.  Even Wufei, who as she'd noted before generally always looked pissed.  But the pulling tug of Christmas enthusiasm and the benefit of attending a 'big bash' were contagious.  Her usually austere-like friends had been softened out for the evening... Strangely enough they all looked a little relaxed.  Relena was anything but relaxed.  And after the evening she'd had she was almost glad that there was no chance of heading home early.  She had much to think about, analyze and plan for.

Seeing Milliardo had been quite weird.  They didn't look alike anymore.  He was tall, blonde, masculine and hardened looking.  He hadn't told her anything of what his childhood had ended up being like.  Only that it had been relatively painless, but he hadn't been raised in the family environment she had.  So although he had grown up to seem just fine and dandy, Relena had been able to tell that he had had a childhood without the love of a substitute parent or sibling to help heal old wounds.  He hadn't had a Frankie.  Nor had he had an Elana.  The Dorlian's didn't have much money, and they had to work for every cent that they earned, but they were happy.  Happiness was a possibility for anyone when there was a family to support and love you, and a home (no matter how small and downtrodden it was) to retreat to in times of need.  So even though Relena's childhood had been one where money was a constant worry she had had the unrelenting love of Frankie and Elana.  They supported her, loved her and cared for her as though she were their very own blood daughter.  They were the best type of foster parents in that she had always felt as though she really were apart of the family, as though she belonged.  And it was that belonging that was so very important to a person.  Relena had gotten the feeling that Milliardo hadn't found a place to belong to in his travels since leaving the Cinq Kingdom.  Judging from the determination that etched his very features Relena gathered that the Cinq was the only place he felt he could and did belong.  Maybe that was why he was so determined, so set on returning to the Cinq Kingdom and taking over a kingdom he had been preordained to inherit.

Relena didn't feel the same way about the Cinq Kingdom.  She did want to return there.  Especially with the rioting getting worse and the political triangle and between-the-lines feuding going on with the many hostile factions warring for a major position as ruler of the Cinq Kingdom.  Romefellar still had a large percentage of control over the kingdom, but that control was waning as Cinq's citizens grew restless.  After years of having their rights virtually ignored by Romefellar the Cinq people were beginning to resist.  Romefellar's governing of the Cinq Kingdom would have been a lot smoother if they had been user-friendly.  Relena did want to return to the Cinq Kingdom, the nation of her birth and the nation with her family history and where she supposed she should have felt most akin to.  The only thing was that Relena enjoyed anonymity.  Growing up in the Dorlian household had allowed Relena to dream and make plans for a relatively normal life.  Her inhibitions had been to plan to do well in school, get into university and become a lawyer, diplomat.... someone who could make a difference without being too public.  Talking, arguing, soothing differences, mediating.... those were the sort of things Relena excelled at.  And while doing stacks of dishes in the back sink of the Dorlian Diner's kitchen Relena had dreamed soap-sudded dreams of an adult hood filled with the challenges of a career, a boyfriend to boot and money as an accessory.  She'd planned for things to be sweet.  Not that they weren't at present.  It was just that she liked being anonymous and having the freedom to make plans for a future she knew she couldn't have.

Dreams were only dreams though.  And Milliardo's appearance that evening had pulled Relena out of that reverie.  The reality was that the day was upon the siblings when they would make a bid for the Cinq Kingdom, their homeland and kingdom by right.  If things went well (which Relena doubted they would), Milliardo would take his place as King of the Cinq Kingdom, while Relena would dabble along supporting her brother as Princess of the nation.  She'd have no freedom.  She'd become merely a pawn in her brother's bid for politics.  He was so determined to retake the Cinq Kingdom that he hadn't seemed to work out what sort of role Relena would have in the retaking of the kingdom.  Relena assumed that she'd be stuck going to a great many galas, dinners, lunches, brunches, meetings, charities, dances, balls, and other events that would show her support of her brother.  Milliardo had said something cryptic that Relena had translated as his assuming that she'd act as his supporter.  He'd retake the kingdom, fix what was wrong with it, and from there take further steps to improve the kingdom.  Relena would act as his supporter, and since she seemed to be the more diplomatic of the two siblings, she would make a point of getting her brother's policies across.  Whatever those policies were deemed to be.  Relena wasn't sure if she wanted to spend the rest of her teenage years working to put her brother in power.  She wasn't too sure if he was even suited to being in such a powerful rule.  He did have a strong personality, Relena credited him with that.  But was it the right type of 'strong' that was suited to ruling a nation?  She wondered what Pagan's view on the siblings and what sort of rule they should exert on their former home country was.  He'd always had an affinity with both the siblings and had supported them in an equally paternal way.  Had Milliardo included Pagan in his planning?  

Relena sighed.  Things were so damn complicated.  And if the siblings were going to carry on down the path of what could only be deemed a coup d'état then they had to learn to get on with each other without being able to practically breathe the tension so evidently there in their reunion earlier on that evening.

For now Relena could only ponder the future... until it happened there was nothing she could possibly do except wait and sit tight.

Funny then that Relena's version of 'sitting tight' involved a mountain load of dishes to do and a party to clean up.  Now that was real life.  And it was that kind of 'real life' that Relena enjoyed, despite the plainness, hardships, and ordinariness of it.  The ordinariness of her life was a facade.  Everything was a facade... and Relena enjoyed the facade.  It was safe.

*********

The party didn't go on as late as Relena had estimated it would.  The last guests had left the place in an overly drunken stupor around two o'clock that Christmas morning.  Sleepy greetings of Merry Christmas had been affirmed amongst the remaining staff working on the catering that evening.  Relena was of course amongst that group.  She hadn't seen any sign of her friends, Elana or Heero after leaving Heero near the fire exit earlier on in the evening.  She'd crawled into her bed in her tiny bedroom above the Dorlian Diner around three o'clock Christmas morning and had slept heavily on through the ceremonial present opening downstairs.  Elana had dragged Relena out of what had been a pleasant sleep with dreams filled with cobalt blue eyes, dark brown hair and soft pale lips pressing against her skin.  Now that dream _had been a 'Merry Christmas'!_

Elana had eventually persuaded Relena to get up and had obscurely implied that instead of heading down to the kitchen in her cheap flannel checkered pajamas, that getting changed would be a very good idea indeed.  And there was the small matter of stinking of a mixture of tobacco and sweat from last night's minor feat of managing the Christmas party after Une had left.  A shower was definitely called for.  

Groaning, Relena rolled out of bed and squinted when she found a plainly wrapped in rich red box.  Now the present was definitely a surprise.  Elana and Frankie always gave Relena her present whenever it was that she finally decided to show herself.  They had a thing about presenting a present to the receiver in person and when they were actually awake and held the receiver's full attention.  Which was in Relena's case, her half-awakened state of half-attentiveness.  

Relena shrugged.  She'd be an air head to have something against being given a present, especially one delivered right to the edge of her bed.  Pulling the box into her arms Relena climbed back into the warmth of her bed.  It was still snowing out and heat could only be found either under the covers of her thickly woolen blankets or downstairs in the Diner's kitchen where the oven and stove were sure to be roaring.  "What do we have here?"  Relena said quietly to herself, filling the empty silence in what was a tiny bedroom.  She ripped the wrapping off of the present, not bothering to savour the surprise and anticipation that should have come with opening an unexpected gift.  "Oh my..."

It was a bear.  A teddy bear.  The kind of present a ten year old expected to receive.  But for a young woman to receive... well it was certainly different.  The kind of gift that a teenage boy would give his crush on Valentine's Day.  But for Christmas.... now that was special.  It was a fluffy brown bear, caramel in colour and with a velvety deep red bow tied classically around its neck.  Two shiny black beaded eyes reflected the look of surprise marring Relena's no-longer sleepy face.  She lifted the bear to her face smelling a mixture of the mustiness that came with owning an antiquity-made teddy bear and also a faint trace of a men's brand of after shave.  Relena couldn't put her finger on what exactly it smelt like, maybe Sandalwood... or was it more like ginger.  Sighing Relena gave up using her nose as a means of figuring out who the gift had come from.  Instead she did what she should have done in the first place and looked for a card.

And a card she found.  Although she could just as easily have missed it.  The gift-giver had done a good thing of concealing the tiny piece of cardboard.  Turning it over in her hands, Relena contemplated the opening of it before actually opening it.  Maybe it was Heero.  Maybe her dreams of cobalt blue eyes and dark brown hair and the soft press of a certain anti-social young man's lips hadn't been what she thought they had been, just dreams.  Maybe he _had been in her bedroom after all.  Relena quit tormenting herself and actually opened the card._

She wasn't to be disappointed.... Relena sighed a sigh of blissful relief.  He had been there, in her room, beside her bed, near her sleeping form.  Had she really dreamed that he'd kissed her?  All had he just happened to drop a honey warm kiss onto her sleep-dazed but slightly aware brow.  Touching where she'd dreamed him pressing his lips against her skin, Relena gently pushed her fingers against the top of her brow.  Maybe it hadn't been a dream after all...

And if it hadn't, she had to thank Heero for not only the present, but also for the kiss that she hadn't been in any state to agree to.  Not that she had any problems with agreeing to kiss Heero Yuy.  She would have liked to have been awake while doing so though.

Flopping back into the comforting cushions of her bed Relena found getting up that morning even more difficult.

Oh how she wish she'd been awake.... how she hoped the kiss had been real.....

**********

She did eventually get up.  Frankie had to bang on Relena's bedroom door for several minutes before she sluggishly dragged herself out of the warmth and comfort of her bed and into the uncontrollable temperature that was the Dorlian family shower.

Plodding sluggishly down the stairs a long while after Frankie's wake up call Relena was surprised to find her friends sitting around the Diner's countertop while Elana and Frankie had all but disappeared.  

"They're cooking breakfast... although I think it's more like brunch now!"  Hilde explained from the stool she was sitting on beside the Diner's counter.  Duo was beside her.  Relena eyed her two friends carefully. They looked thoroughly too cheerful.

"Merry Christmas to you too!"  Relena said grumpily as she reached the last step of the stair case separating the diner from the Dorlian's living area.  "What are you all doing here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Duo raised his hands in mock-offense. "Hey no offense taken Lena.  Your folks told us that you ended up working later then you had expected to.  Something about the manager taking off.... or something like that?"  He glanced at Quatre who Relena assumed had been told the full gist of the story.  Well the half gist of the story which was that one of Une's relatives was sick and dying in Canada.  That was believable enough.  And if it wasn't, it was Relena's best attempt with coming up with a covering lie while being under pressure to clean up the Winner festivities the evening before.

"It's okay Duo.  And I am tired...."  Relena affirmed resisting a yawn. 

"There there Relena... it's only Christmas."  Hilde bantered, cheering her sleepy friend on.

"Oh yeah.  Merry Christmas guys." Relena said, pushing stray wisps of hair out of her eyes.  Spotting Heero, Relena sported him a smile.  He deserved a medal for the Christmas present and a trophy for the sweetly-dreamed but just perhaps real-life kiss.  Unfortunately all that she had on her was a smile.  She hoped that would do him.

Heero studied Relena from the end of the counter.  She'd obviously gotten his Christmas present.  And from the pretty blush staining her cheeks she'd liked it.  Very much indeed.  Hopefully the gift had broken the necessary ice and just maybe she now trusted him enough to tell him what she had almost told him last night.

"When's brunch anyway?"  Relena asked.

"Um... your folks went out back to cook it awhile ago.  They said it wouldn't be ready for awhile yet."  Duo said.  "We've been sitting here for awhile now Lena.  I'm kind of bored..."

"Want to take a walk then?"  Hilde asked Duo. Relena raised an eyebrow. Was her friend propositioning her other friend in front of _everybody.  Hilde met Relena's horrified gaze.  "Not like that Relena!  I meant everybody.  Does everyone want to take a walk?"_

Nobody was terribly eager to go for a walk.  But then again, taking a walk seemed a lot more exciting then sitting around waiting for what seemed to be an imaginary brunch.  So the group filed out of the diner in their own time.  Relena couldn't be bothered to let Elana and Frankie know that they'd left the premises.  They'd figure it out eventually anyway.

"Hey Heero,"  Relena called out to the boy who she'd come to the conclusion had only been in her room but a few hours ago. "Wait up for a minute will you?"

Heero paused at the Dorlian's entrance.  Funny how their roles in only a matter of moments had been reversed.  Up until only moments ago he'd been the one who'd stop her in mid-stride.  Now it was her, doing the same thing to him.  And he'd accepted.  Something nearly unheard of for him.

The others filed out the door, while Relena pulled on her pea coat.  Heero stood beside the door waiting for her admission or was it omission?

"Thanks for the Christmas present Heero."  She said, pausing with the buttoning of the coat.  "It meant a lot to me."

Heero eyed her warily.  She'd liked the bear  He hadn't been sure about it.  But it had been what he felt symbolized his relationship with Relena... and as he was slowly coming to figure out, just what he wanted his relationship with Relena to be like.

"You don't have to say anything,"  Relena said, "But I just wanted to let you know that I appreciated the gift.  Merry Christmas."  She leaned up to him, pressing her soft coral lips against his own soft skin.  It wasn't a sloppy peck on the cheek, but a lingering one with much feeling underlying the mere press of lips to cheek.  And Heero's cheek tingled.  She'd left an invisible mark on his soul.

"Thank you again Heero." Relena said quietly as she led the way out the door of the Diner to join their friends who'd long since left them behind.

*********

Chapter ends... but is tbc! 

Author's Note:  Thanks to Lady Scarlet-Une, mya, Ley, babyblonde5333, Icy B. Discordia, N/A, Crystal, AyanamiChan, Dark Deity, Shirokitsune, Blue diamond, Eve, Kodoku, Meio-chan, Maddywan, Lynderia, kay, Princess Relena, nAmelez, Winnie Shinya, Lady Gatamon, Okanami, Alexia Goddess, Adia, Silver Wing, Amy aka Demon_Wolf, Lady Hitomi, deathangel, Selena-miller, Hysteria, Kiddi Chi, koneko-chan, Dark Mistress, Silver_Star, Sarah Day, aznistic, Gabreil, Joyell9292, Starlight Gundam, and Chibi Cat for the lovely feedback you guys have all left me.  It's been much appreciated!  ^_^

As always taken the time to review.  I always appreciated feedback – it's what keeps me going!  Also I've just recently dabbled in GW poetry.  If you can please do check it out and let me know if I should stick to straight prose!

Till next time,

Cheers,

Jooles  ^_~


	9. Plans and a Heart to Heart

**A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles***

_Disclaimer:  The usual baloney.  I'm just a poor student with nooooo money whatsoever.  So please don't sue me!_

**_Author's Notes:  Whew!  Long time no see.  Apologies for the extended wait with this chapter.  School, adventures away and writer's block making itself right at home managed to put the fic on hold for 'awhile'.  Anyway, the chapter focuses on the __other Peacecraft sibling this time around, so don't be too disappointed for lack of Heero and Relena moments.  It was quite a difficult chapter to write (obvious as to why it took so long!) and it features a lot of background and important tid bits of information that you guys, as readers will find of some use in later chapters._**

**_Dedication:_****  To Stefy who drew a beautiful piece of fanart for the fic.  She's taken the scene from the dance and worked wonders with it.  Thank you Stefy, you are such a talented person!  Check out the drawing at: http://www.blissfulignorance.com/Fanfiction2/joolesdance.jpg**

And without further ado, here's 

**Chapter Six**

The hastiness with which Milliardo and Une exited the grounds of the Winner estate hadn't been all that sensational.  Une had been quite disconcerted when Milliardo had filled her in on what had happened to Treize.  She hadn't been able to understand why Treize had so blatantly defied his uncle.  He could have kept his opinion to himself, but he hadn't, and it had gotten him thrown in the brig.

As apprehensive as Milliardo was about Treize , he was also eternally grateful for his friend's loyalty. Treize's insubordination had been a supreme move.  Many of Romafellar's members and its soldiers supported Treize rather than his uncle.  Duke Dermail was just the figurehead keeping the leader's seat warm until Treize stepped into his preordained role as leader.  

The lines had been drawn with Treize's 'disappearance'.  The rumour that Treize had been locked up had been but just that, a rumour.  But even those closest to Duke Dermail had begun to doubt his leadership abilities and had let slip to some of the less hierarchical members of the Foundation that Treize had been imprisoned after defying his uncle.  Gradually the news had seeped its way down the ranks, whereupon it had reached Milliardo who had been in the thick and fullness of completing his last term at Westpoint.  Upon hearing the news Milliardo had instantly guessed as to why his friend had been locked up by his own uncle.  There were many possible reasons as to why Duke Dermail could possibly get angry at his nephew, however there was only one reason that pinpointed Treize angering the Duke enough as to be locked up.

It was defiance.  Defying his elder may not have seemed like much of a big deal.  But in such a back-stabbing and corrupt organisation such as  the Romafellar Foundation, defiance often hinted at possible treachery within an organisation.  Treachery would always be a primary fear for any leader of an organisation as large and as deceitful as Romafellar was.  In Dermail's case he had fulfilled the ancient Roman role of being a "Caligula" and had started to become suspicious of his subjects, trusting no one, his nephew included.

Milliardo had stopped himself in what could possibly have been an inconceivably rash move.  He'd almost hastily headed straight for the Lake Victoria base in Africa where Treize was believed to be held.  Thankfully Lucrezia Noin had brought to light the possible danger and foot-in-one's grave foolishness going to Lake Victoria would have brought about.  Noin was his equal in both age, ability and knowledge.  The two had formed a friendship based on each other's ambitions when they'd first met at military school.  From there they'd competed right the way through their schooling, and Noin, although his competition, helped motivate him and support him in whatever tribulation came along.  They both wanted and needed to do well at Westpoint, the only difference being that they had separate reasons for being quite so ambitious.  Lucrezia and Treize were two of the few people who truly knew Zechs Merquize's heritage.  Make that three people.  He'd ended up filling Une in on his heritage as they'd driven cross country and to the safe house where Noin was supposed to meet them.  

Milliardo trusted both Lucrezia and Treize.  Treize had been Milliardo's benefactor.  He'd helped him out of some tight fixes and had also helped assure Milliardo that the Peacecraft cause of pacifism would never be truly lost.  Treize had helped him make plans for the taking back of the Cinq Kingdom.  It was to be a very trying cause, but one that would reap the rewards of pure benefit at the conclusion of it.

Noin had helped Milliardo in more ways than she was probably aware of. She'd offered him unconditional friendship.  With that companionship Milliardo had had someone to trust, someone to believe in him even when he himself didn't so.  Noin understood him and liked him despite his numerous character flaws, of which there were many.

Une had been somewhat surprised when he'd told her who he really was.  Although, Milliardo's past observations had revealed that Une was a woman who was rarely ever phased by revelations and skirmishes, preferring to take the happening all in what could only be her stride.  When it came to Treize though, Une was a entirely different woman.  Somewhere along the line it had evidently become very important to her that she please Treize.  She quite clearly had very deep feelings for the man, and going by what Treize had told him in only the briefest of snippets of certainty, it would seem that Treize held Une in the deepest and most admirable regard.  It was now then, that Milliardo was left with the job of finding out if Une wanted to join in with his cause, the cause that Treize himself, had assigned himself to, despite the fact that he stood to inherit the leader's role of the Romafellar Foundation.  Would Treize be so friendly when and if he found their friendship separated by the fact that they were traditionally meant to be against one another?  He hoped he wouldn't have to find out where Treize's legions truly lay, if they weren't with him.

"We're here."  Une said after checking the road map and the coordinates Noin had told them to meet her at.  "I can see the cabin in the distance."

Milliardo grunted his recognition and ever so lightly added weight to his foot pressing on the accelerator.  Noin was expecting them.

********************

The cabin Noin had met them at was a regular safe house.  It didn't have the generation's modern technologies, however it did have a fire, food and space enough so that a good night's sleep might just occur.

The three had got straight down to discussing just what to do about the situation as soon as Milliardo and Une had pulled up.  Noin had been waiting inside, a large map of the Cinq Kingdom and a map of Lake Victoria spread out on what he guessed was the safe house's version of a dining table.  

"What's our biggest threat Noin?"  Milliardo asked watching as she flipped through the contents of her notebook.  

Gesturing to the map of the Cinq Kingdom she stated, "We've got New Port City at the centre of the Cinq surrounded and populated by the Romafellar Foundation and as you well know its now controlling and using Oz as an armed force." She pointed to the capital and drew a circle around the outside of the Cinq to within what would have been kilometers of the border.  "The land outside of Newport to within kilometers of the border isn't populated.  Well not populated in the sense that there are no other factions in the surrounding vicinity."

"That's good."  Milliardo stated.

"Yes it is good.  However, we have the White Fang over here,"  she pointed to the Cinq's coastline and ran her hand along extent of it.  "This means accessing the kingdom from the sea could be more than a bit of a problem."

She glanced between Une and Milliardo before continuing. "Then over here along the border that links Cinq with France, the Barton Foundation have their headquarters here, although my sources tell me that the militia have been grouped off and spread out right along the Cinq - Francais border.

Une asked the question Milliardo had not wanted to ask, "The kingdom is surrounded isn't it?  Is there any way in at all?"

Noin  contemplated her question, "There are a few options, all of them risky nonetheless."

"Go on."  Milliardo said.

"There's a river crossing on the Cinq - Francais border here,"  she pointed to the crossing, "it's a dangerous crossing which is why Barton's men walk _around it.  Our people might be able to access it.  If we were able to, than Barton's people would never have a clue that something had slipped through their network area.  It would be dangerous, but a small group of men might just be able to get through." _

"What about a large scale operation?"  Une asked.

"You have two options; you can enter via the air.  Fly into the Cinq Kingdom and land at a marked point somewhere between New Port and the borderline."  She checked her notebook, "However Romafellar would find our position almost immediately.  The possibility that they'd send one of their special forces to take care of us is too risky."

"What are our other options?"

"There are a couple of possibilities in hind sight. The first is that you take over a carrier ship and navigate it into the Cinq port where you could either fight the White Fang ..."

"Or join them?"  He finished, knowing quite well what she hadn't wanted to say.

Noin nodded.  "I don't like it anymore than you do Zechs, but I think it might be a safer option than trying to fight against them."

"Why would you join them when in effect they're meant to be your enemy?"  A somewhat miffed Une inquired.

Milliardo sighed, rubbing his head in what could only be slight frustration.  "I have people willing to fight for my family's cause Une, and I have money thanks to the benefaction of Treize, but it's not enough.  Romafellar has too much of a strong hold on the Cinq Kingdom for just us to take it on.  If we joined forces with the White Fang we would at least stand some chance at success."

"Wouldn't joining with them interfere with the ideals you wish to generate?"  Une asked, yet to be happy with his reasoning.

"There's no way for me to instigate my ideals unless I actually get into New Port.  White Fang can get us there, and although I don't like the fact that I'm going to go against everything my family stands for, I'm going to have to."

"And then what?" 

"And then ... peace."  He said firmly, although he felt as though he was hoping for something only possible in dreams.

**********

Shortly afterwards they had worked out a plan of just how they were going to get their hands on a carrier ship, and how they were going to go about suitably approaching the White Fang.  They were still hammering out the details of the plan, but from the looks of things, things were looking marginally better.

Noin had finished filling them in on just what the status with Romafellar, the White Fang and Oz, was; although since she had yet to tell him her information regarding the Barton Foundation, he had a feeling she was still figuring out just how to tell him what she'd found out.

"So, we've got the White Fang here, on the coastline,"  Noin tapped the whereabouts of the faction on the map laid out.  "And over this side we've got a new faction, I mentioned the Barton Foundation before, but I didn't tell you that they're relatively new players in the pulley for the Cinq.  Actually I was sent a briefing less than four hours ago."

"Are they a threat?"  Milliardo asked as calmly as possible; this new element was unexpected and of course unwanted.

Noin shook her head.  "Not yet, but their position on the Cinq - Francais border means that they are potentially a force not to be reckoned with."

Noin flipped open a notebook in which she'd jotted down the faction's status.  Reading from it she said; "The Barton Foundation. It's leader, one Denkim Barton, you might have heard of him... He's a very powerful man in the Cinq's neck of the woods, had dealings in many of the Cinq's recent riots and underground crime."

"Anything else?"  Milliardo asked, holding his chin in his hand, evidently analyzing just what could be done about this new situation.

"There is one other thing,"  Noin glanced hesitantly at Une, not quite sure how to state the information she'd come across.  "A girl named Mariemaia is being used as the Foundation's figurehead.  She claims to be Treize's daughter."

"That's impossible!"  Une exclaimed.  Then as though she'd thought it through and the believability a little shady though not doubtful she absently asked, "She thinks she's Treize's what?"

"Daughter,"  Milliardo finished for her, glancing at Noin he urged her to continue.

"Treize would have had to have been with Mariemai's mother, Denkim's daughter, Leia Barton when he was about sixteen.  I've checked my records and a DNA sampling one of Westpoint Doctor's did awhile back has more or less confirmed their linkage.

"Well this was unexpected."  Milliardo sighed while absently clenching and unclenching his fist.  Things had become more complicated then he had planned and he wasn't sure if he had the confidence or the courage to face the problems yet to come.

Noin interrupted his uneasy thoughts stating wryly "The million dollar question now is what all this says for our friend locked up in Lake Victoria?"

Yes, just what did it say for Treize?  He had links with the Barton Foundation in the form of a daughter, links with the Romafellar Foundation in the form of one very tyrannical uncle, and links with their organisation... the organisation yet to have a name.  The question was what organisation would Treize align himself with when and if he got out of Lake Victoria? 

*********

The three had separated for a brief hour's break shortly after Noin's revelation regarding Treize's daughter.  It was supposed that later on after their break, they would discuss just what to do about Treize and find out if Une was going to go back to Romafellar after the divulgence that her only link (Treize) had in a sense broken his links with the Foundation.  After sitting through their planning, 

Milliardo had showered and changed into fresh clothes shortly after his regroup meeting with Noin and Une.  

His facial expression notably softened at the thought of Noin.  She'd come through for him, in more ways than one.  The lengths she must have had to go through to get the information she had must have been extraneous to say the least.  He still couldn't believe how much they now knew.  It was all because of Noin, no Lucrezia, Milliardo reminded himself.

Her information had left him with much to ponder.  The question of Treize's value of character was beginning to come into question, although Milliardo would not even for a second think about ousting Treize, not after he'd gotten himself thrown in the brig because of their friendship.

A soft clearing of the throat interrupted Milliardo's antagonizing thoughts.  He turned to find Noin herself changed into what looked to be a pair of khakis and a soft suede shirt.  He'd only been away for a few days yet the internal heartache he'd felt from not being near her had been rather adamant.  He stretched his arm out towards her and she slipped her hand in his hand, content enough to stand with him for a moment.

"I'm not sure how much better things can get,"  Noin told him frankly.

Milliardo gave a rough laugh; "Oh a real kick in the back would be if someone were to tell me that you'd joined forces with someone else."  He glanced at her, letting her know that this was his weakness, she was his weakness.  

Noin's response was the tug of his arm and a step closer into what was ironically his warmth.  "Don't even think it Zechs."  She shook her head.  "Never, never ..."

He frowned in a mixture of concern and amusement.  The fact that she knew him and his tendency so well was sometimes a little unnerving.  He pulled her closer to him and rested his arm around her shoulders while she effectively relaxed into him.  This was his time.  She was his tranquillity.  "You mean a great deal to me Noin," he said, realising that his declaration was probably the closest he'd come to admitting he had any feelings of the sort for her.

"And I love you Zechs."  Noin said plainly.  No one should have to be ashamed of love, least of all the person with the soulful feelings.  

Pressing her lips to his hand before letting go of him, she murmured briefly against his gently clenched hand, "And I can wait."

Leaving him alone to reflect for a moment she shut the door quietly.

Milliardo shut his eyes in what could only be the brief feeling of elevated satisfaction as he thought about just how much this woman meant to him.  Did he really want to give up what might have been an undesignated lifestyle for what fate held on the cards for him?  If he didn't what would become of his link with Noin?

She'd told him that she'd wait.  However what if the wait was too long, would she still be loving and charismatic towards him?  Would she even still have feelings for him after witnessing the things he knew he'd end up having to do?

Pushing the thought that made him shudder uncontrollably aside, he walked out of the tiny room he'd been given for the night and slammed the door audibly upon his exit from the room.

Right now he had to figure out just how he was going to get Treize out of the brig Dermail had his friend in at Lake Victoria.  Not only did he have to work a suitable way into the Cinq Kingdom, the most favoured option looking to be through the White Fang; but he also had to work out a way into Africa where the Lake Victoria base was situated.  

And there was of course Relena to think about.  There was a tension between them which he hadn't counted on being there.  No matter what the circumstances they would always be blood kin.  However they had grown up living distinctly different childhood's.  He and Pagan had trekked around the country for the first eighteen months after leaving Relena strategically placed in the Dorlian family's care.  They'd had to separate after a run in with somebody who had recognised Pagan as being linked with the family.  It was amazing, they'd made a massive move from Europe to America and Pagan had _still been recognisable.  He himself probably would have been also, if Pagan hadn't kept him hidden away and disguised with heavy clothing and a floppy hat.  He'd grown up quickly within that time, and when he'd been stowed away at a prestigious boarding school that helped him prepare for his premature entry into Westpoint military school.  _

Shaking his head, he couldn't help wondering if reclaiming his true heritage was really worth the current grind he was going through.  And having a feeling that destiny had other, more jarring plans for him he had the most jerking inkling that the plot was yet to thicken.

*******

Chapter ends, but is of course to be continued.

**Author's Notes:  The Emperor Caligula was an Ancient Roman Emperor who pretty much went bonkers.  He did all sorts of crazy things, becoming suspicious of everyone around him being a prime happening.   He had senators, rich men and others whom he didn't like or trust murdered.  Was assassinated.**

A big thank you goes out to Pout who is my new found and very cool beta reader.  

Also thanks to: mya, aznistic, Alexia Goddess, Ley, Empress Sarah-sama, Lynn, Eve, Dark Deity, AyanamiChan, deathangel, Silver Wing, N/A, Blue diamond, Meio-chan, Lady Legalos, babyblonde5333, kay, Koneko-chan, Zechstress, ice-cold, FierySable, rei, Pink Sakura, ShiroKitsune, Kitty Sage, Chibi Cat, MaraLaeh Lynn, Silver_Star, Pidgeon, Winnie, Jealous Wabbit, C.Wilhoite, andros, selena-miller, Crystal, Kessa, SAL, km lowe, Kitahoshi, Pink Ice, Fuhrer, sweet_angel, Innocent Dreamer, ghqw;alh, Aurachan, Ami Yuy, debra m (J), Mara Jade, Dark Mistress, Nonseqtr and of course to BECCA W (you are so awesome!).  The feedback you gave me was really lovely, and I must say that slaving over the plot and the writing of a chapter is always worth it when you guys write such heartwarming reviews, so thank you so much for obliging me.  It means a lot.  ^__^

Thanks for reading and please do take the time to review.

Cheers,

Jooles* 


	10. One on One

A Boarding School Facade - by Jooles  
  
Chapter Seven  
  
It was raining. There was no mistaking the sound of a cold, hard rain pelting against the corrugated iron roof of St. Michael's gymnasium. Outside, was a bleak landscape of grays and charcoals. Inside, the harsh florescent lighting illuminated the centre of the school's gym, the basketball court. Alongside sat the bulk of St. Michael's student and teaching population. Amongst the crowd sat one exiled and presumed to be dead regent.  
  
Just over three weeks had passed since the unanticipated events of Christmas. Relena had seen her brother for the first time in years, and much to her own assenting shock, had recognised him. Her earlier skepticism that people were aware that the Peacecraft monarchs lived had also been confirmed. Heero and Une had more or less been proof to her current suspicion. And, there had been Heero. He'd been there, silent and impenetrable in the background. No words were needed to emphasise that he knew so much more than he would ever let on. The teddy bear had been a thoughtful if somewhat childish gift, but a confirmation that something indefinable was there between them, even if a peck on the cheek was all that the two of them had to show for their obscure yet growing bond.  
  
So time had passed, and Relena in the safety of her naiveté had returned to St. Michael's deigning all ignorance as usual. Milliardo hadn't contacted her. He'd all but dropped off the face of the planet. Pagan, her loyal grand-father like guardian had also disappeared into some metaphorical cosmic void. Relena had tried calling him everyday over the past three week without any luck. She couldn't work out if he was purposefully not answering her phone calls, or if something had happened to him. She preferred to hope that he just wasn't answering her phone calls, for reasons unknown, instead of the latter more sinister reason. Meanwhile Relena silently bade her time, waiting for a sign, any sign from her brother and her would-be guardian. Witty musings didn't stop her pondering that perhaps taking up augury, haruspicy or praying to the divinities for a sign, any sign, may have been of use.  
  
Shaking her head while in the revenue of student-teacher body, Relena squinted, focusing her attention on the centre of the basketball court. She'd taken a seat near the back of the now filled to the brim gymnasium. There were a few empty seats around her, other students having chosen to sit nearer the action.  
  
The St. Michael's Senior Boys' A Basketball team was well-known for its competitive success. The team's most piqued rivals were another Senior Boys' A team from St. Luke's School. Like St. Michael's, St. Luke's was well known for its high level of achievement and advanced level of snobbery and stick up one's ass attitude. Sighing, Relena wondered briefly just how well the two respective basketball teams would do if they were to face teams other than that of their own social standing. Shrugging at the thought, Relena realised that it was of little importance anyhow. Class systems existed everywhere, no matter how egalitarian a nation was known for being.  
  
Down in the centre of the basketball court the two teams stood around a circle outlined in the middle. St. Michael's members were clothed in scarlet shorts and singlets, while St. Luke's team members were clad in green. Recognising Duo and Heero standing around the circle, with Trowa standing at the centre, preparing to take the team's jump ball, Relena brows furrowed. She vaguely recalled Duo mentioning playing basketball, but at the time hadn't realised that he'd meant that he played for the school's team. As for Heero, well Relena wasn't too surprised. Duo was playing, which meant either he'd forced Heero to join the team, kicking and struggling (he would never squirm) or he'd joined for the purely competitive nature that was a part of Heero's persona. It was of no surprise however, that Trowa was a member of the team. With his rangy height, it would have been wasteful for St. Michael's not to have him as a member of the team.  
  
The referee blew the whistle, tossing the ball high up in the air. Relena watched fixedly as it made it's spinning descent before being knocked effortlessly by Trowa into Duo's outstretched and waiting hands. And, so the game had started, and the crowd was entertained, by yet another face- off by two schools hypothetically stuck in the recesses of another era.  
  
*****  
  
"Did you see Trowa's jump shot? Did you Duo's lay-up? What about Heero's three-pointer?"  
  
Startled, Relena looked up into her best friend's unmistakable pools of aqua-sea blues. Her nose wrinkled, "Is that what you call it, a jump shot?"  
  
Unimpressed, Quatre sat down next to her. "Relena, you know very well what a jump shot is! Remember, we spent half the semester playing the ruddy sport for gym class last year."  
  
Relena, recognised the figure of Dorothy Catalonia, her dorm mate. Sporting the quirk of a half-smile, Relena punched her friend lightly on the forearm, adding impishly "Of course, you're completely right Quatre. Oh how could I have forgotten?"  
  
Quatre groaned. "Relena ..."  
  
Indifferently: "Yes?"  
  
Wearily: "Just watch the game already"  
  
Grinning, Relena patted Quatre on the back, "That's right Quatre, back down now while you still can."  
  
Cringing, Quatre started to respond, but changed the topic, "Relena, this is Dorothy. Dorothy this is -- "  
  
Relena had caught Quatre's arm, mid-introductory gesture. "There's no need Quatre. Dorothy and I already know each other."  
  
Dorothy shook her head as surprise flickered over Quatre's features. The girl's pale blonde hair thrashed lightly in her face, giving a tough edge to the aristocratic girl's features. In an almost stately tone Dorothy explained to Quatre that the two girls were dorm mates.  
  
Relena's brow furrowed for the second time that evening, surprised at both Quatre's ignorance and forgetfulness, and Dorothy's slip in not having mentioned Relena to Quatre. It made Relena want to address an issue she'd been forcing to the back of her mind for weeks, mere months even.  
  
She'd long been aware that her and Quatre had drifted since their shift from Treventville to St. Michael's. Quatre had gotten caught up in making new friends, attending activities he as the Winner family heir was nominally invited to, and the general St. Michael's school life. Relena meanwhile had adopted an anonymous front, making friends with few people, forming connections with a young man that had yet to drop his blank mask. She'd desperately tried to keep up her grades which in hindsight were damnably non-existent under her current alias. Anyway, would grades even matter if a) she wasn't expected to live past her eighteenth birthday, and/or b) she was to take over the maintenance of the Cinq Kingdom? The grades may not have mattered, but the knowledge gained did. And it was with this thinking that Relena had pushed on ahead of the rest of her year with a work ethic which some casual observers had stated as being frightening. It was of course no surprise then, that while Quatre had been wining and dining with other students from families not unlike the Winner family that in the feign of his ignorance the two friends had grown nominally apart. Relena, more withdrawn and driven than ever rarely visited Quatre at his dorm now. She often skipped mealtimes in favour of retreating to one of St. Michael's many unknown rooms. While her new friends questioned her withdrawal, Quatre had been busy getting to know people like Dorothy Catalonia with familial links as prestigious as his own. Which brought her to the uneasy question, as to just where Quatre's head was these days. It was indeed a lovely change to seem him relaxed and without a face lined with worry. When they had been more of an inseparable pair in the old days, in Treventville, it had not been rare for Quatre's now sparkling eyes to be wan and circled in dark from lack of sleep. He fit the bill of a more than healthy and sleep-fulfilled young man nowadays, and Relena couldn't help but be pleased for her friend. Why, was it then that she felt so unbelievably sad,? For, with the recognition that her friend was indeed happier than he had ever been, came the conclusion that by not relying on Quatre as a confidant since leaving Treventville, had in turn lifted what had been a great weight off of his slimly toned shoulders.  
  
The intonation of laughter broke Relena's heavy-hearted thoughts. Turning, Relena was greeted with the sight of Quatre laughing audibly, upper body hunched over, gasping for breaths, as salty tear caused from laughing too hard ran down his pale cheeks. Beside him Dorothy gripped his elbow, not laughing quite so openly, but with a deign of control that made Relena a little uncomfortable.  
  
Pasting a smile on her face, Relena listened as Quatre explained what himself and Dorothy had found quite so funny. Nodding understandingly and showing her pearly whites, Relena gave the outward impression of jovial nonchalance.  
  
Inside she was grieving.  
  
*****  
  
Relena couldn't work out who was more shocked at St. Michael's. The school body was quiet, grieving. It was only a game, yet the school and even the team seemed more than a little surprised at the unanticipated loss.  
  
The team had held the upper hand right till the end of the game, when thing's had gone so severely wrong. Heero, as a guard had been a mountain of strength, no steel, in the defense department. However, his concentration had seemed to wane at in the last few minutes, giving St. Luke's a chance to worm a few three-pointers into the goal. And in heated frustration, Heero had practically handed the opposition a bouquet of red rose free throws. From that point, Trowa started to miss rebounds, instead catching the emptiness of air. Duo, in an almost hyperactive vehemence, continually got his footing wrong, messing up game plays the team evidently didn't have pinned down as well as they had originally thought. It was painful watching the team lose their concentration in the last few minutes of the game. Having done so, they threw their much sought-after win away.  
  
Frowning, Relena watched as Heero, drenched in a thick coat of salty sweat, blandly shook hands with members from the St. Luke's team. Unlike his team mates, he did not look defeated. Instead it was a complete air of indifference that made Relena wonder if Heero actually even gave a damn about having lost the game. Momentarily, he looked out into the gymnasium's stands, searching for something. From her bench at the back, Relena drew in a breath, willing herself to become invisible. Her wish was to no avail.  
  
Meeting her gaze for the space of a moment, Relena tried pasting another smile on her face. It was ineffective. She couldn't hide her bewilderment at Heero's air of indifference, and in the end she decided it wasn't worth fighting it. Frowning, Heero turned away from Relena's gaze, shaking the hands of another victor of the St. Luke's team.  
  
Beside her, Quatre was shaking his fist in unbidden disbelief. "Did you see that Dorothy, Relena? That really was a dreadful way to end a game."  
  
Nodding, Dorothy caught Quatre's fist with her own long, pale hands. Relena cringed as she watched Dorothy fawn over Quatre. It had been one thing to have accepted that she and Quatre had grown apart. However, it was an entirely different thing to have one of the reasons to their new- found distance rubbed unashamedly in her face.  
  
"I've got to go." She said, standing up abruptly. She tried to move past Quatre, who grabbed her hand in his.  
  
"You can't go Relena. We've got to go down and see the others." He gestured to Trowa, Duo and Heero.  
  
Relena shook her head, "Right, because they really want to have their loss rubbed in their faces right now."  
  
Taken aback, Quatre looked at Relena in momentary surprise. As realisation slowly dawned on his face, Relena tried unsuccessfully to pull her hand from his grasp.  
  
Quatre turned to Dorothy who had grown quiet, watching the two friends in an odd way that Relena would later ponder on. "Dorothy, how about we meet you down there? There's some things Relena need to discuss."  
  
Relena cringed at the business like way Quatre handled Dorothy's departure. Watching Dorothy make her way down the bleachers, Relena tried once again to free her hand from Quatre's grasp.  
  
Irritated, Relena pushed her nails into the palm of Quatre's hand, "No Quatre!"  
  
Wearied, Quatre looked at Relena in a mixture of uncertainty and stupefaction. Letting her hand go, he said quietly, "What's this really about Relena?"  
  
Looking straight ahead, Relena noted that Dorothy was now down on the court talking animatedly with Duo, who seemed to have gotten over his team's defeat. Suddenly Dorothy pointed up to where Quatre and Relena sat in the stairs forcing Relena to face her friend.  
  
Quatre gazed at her with an odd sort of apprehensive look about him. "Please Relena, what's really bothering you?"  
  
"Nothing Quare. Really, it's nothing. I just wanted to get back to my dorm. There's an essay I have due for His--"  
  
"Why do you always do that Relena?" Quatre asked, cutting off her weak attempt at a fib.  
  
Sighing, Relena said, "I don't do it on purpose Quatre. I have to do it. It makes life easier."  
  
Quatre frowned. "Do you want to tell me what's really going on? ("No") Why you've practically gone into hibernation since Christmas? ("No") Or why you look like you want to throttle Dorothy every time you see her? ("No, can't explain that one. Sorry.") Do you want to tell me the true reason why you don't turn up to meals? ("Nope") Or why you're suddenly burying yourself in huge amounts of study? ("No") Are you going to tell me what's really wrong, what really happened at Christmas that's gotten you so, so, apprehensive?" Quatre was frustrated, concerned, worried, irritated. His reconcile with Relena was not going well. He could hear Relena mechanically answering his rhetorical questions, and her refusal to answer his last question.  
  
Frustrated, Quatre heaved a sigh so deep there was no way of hiding his bewilderment: "Relena please, just tell me what's going on. Please, tell me why you're so angry with me. Please, just say something, anything. I want to help you!"  
  
Unable to hide how helpless she felt, Relena croaked out, "I don't think you can, Quatre."  
  
"But I can try!"  
  
Shaking her head, "I'm too far into this mess to be able to explain it logically. I don't understand half of it myself."  
  
"Is this about Heero?"  
  
Aghast, Relena shook her head. "Of course not!"  
  
"Is this about your brother then?"  
  
Puzzled, Relena squinted at him, "What do you mean about my brother?"  
  
"Have you heard from him?"  
  
Dejectedly Relena nodded.  
  
"When?"  
  
"Christmas time."  
  
"Where?"  
  
Relena's eyes shuttered, as she imagined herself hammering the final nail in her imaginary coffin. "At your father's Christmas party."  
  
She heard Quatre's sharp intake of breath, and him pause his inquisition. There was a long stretch of silence between the two of them as things fell into place.  
  
Finally: "Relena... I'm so sorry."  
  
Waving her hand, "It's okay Quatre. Really, it's okay. I'm dealing with it well enough."  
  
"But--"  
  
Relena interrupted him, "No. Really it's okay Quatre. I've just felt a little 'on edge' is all."  
  
Relena watched stagnantly as Quatre took her hand in his once again. "I've been such a useless friend Relena. Please forgive me?"  
  
"There's nothing to forgive you for Quatre. You can't help the fact that you've made new friends here."  
  
"Yes, but I should have known to remember my old friends at the same time. Please accept my apology Relena. Please."  
  
It was unlike Quatre to be so adamant. "I accept, although I still think that there's nothing to forgive."  
  
Quatre let go of her hand, as they watched as the rest of the student and teaching body trickled their way out of the gymnasium.  
  
"What is it that you don't like about Dorothy?" Quatre asked suddenly. So suddenly that Relena's gaze flickered down to where Duo stood with Dorothy. Duo was spinning a basketball on his index finger, while Dorothy looked on in a haughty way that once again made Relena thoroughly uncomfortable.  
  
Deciding that a feeling wasn't a good enough reason Relena told Quatre that it was nothing. Instead opting for the excuse, "Oh, she's just a really irritating dorm mate. She leaves her clothes lying around everywhere, and constantly uses my hairbrush. Have you gotten a look at how long her hair is Quatre? I mean she's ruined two of my hairbrushes in the last two weeks."  
  
Chuckling, Quatre believed Relena's excuse at complete face-value. "Well, if that's the only reason, than I suggest we make our way down to the court before Dorothy pulls Duo into a headlock."  
  
"She wouldn't?!"  
  
Quatre shrugged, "Who knows. She's not all that bad, really Relena. She has some how should I say it, 'interesting' thoughts on the Cinq Kingdom. You should ask her about it someday. I think you'd be rather impressed, if not challenged."  
  
Relena nodded noncommittally, "Right Quatre. Thanks all the same for the conversation starter, but really, I do prefer being outside of Dorothy Catalonia's stratosphere."  
  
"Okay. Whatever Relena. It was, only a suggestion really."  
  
"Good then. Friends again," She paused at the last step leading down to the court.  
  
Quatre smiled, "I can't recall a time when we weren't."  
  
Sniffing, Relena began, "Well...."  
  
Quatre frowned, as they made their way over to their friends. "Don't rehash the past Relena." He glanced at her, "Do try and remember that I'm here for you. Always."  
  
Wrinkling her nose, Relena grimaced, "Please Quatre, quit with the mush already. I'm going to need a tissue box soon, and crying is an event I'm more than happy to put off."  
  
"Uh huh. Whatever you want."  
  
*****  
  
When they'd reached their friends, Relena realised up close that they were in fact, jaded. Duo, it seemed, had given up entertaining Dorothy. The ice-blonde in question had an air of disapproval about her that grew more defined at the unhidden look of relief she had on her face at Quatre's appearance. Relena's gaze flickered to Trowa, wondering just what he made of all of this. She felt herself to be on a similar wavelength to Trowa for the second time since she'd met him. Like herself, he had the keen eye of an observer, if not more so. He too, seemed more than a little miffed by Dorothy. It would have been difficult to have assessed this if Relena had not stood with Trowa at the dance so long ago. Relena still firmly believed that Quatre was genuinely interested in Dorothy who he continually affirmed was an 'intriguing' character. Relena was yet to find where the intrigue lay within Dorothy's character.  
  
"Hi guys," Quatre grinned, "Sorry about the game."  
  
"Yeah, we are too. We almost won it." Duo said, not bothering to hide his disappointment. He glared at Heero.  
  
Heero ignored Duo's glare.  
  
Dorothy chimed in attempting to dissolve the air of discomfort, "There are always other games."  
  
Duo scowled at Dorothy. Looking more than a little defeated he grabbed a nearby water bottle and bade them all good night. Evidently, he was quite pissed.  
  
Evidently so was Trowa when he left shortly after Duo.  
  
Quatre shrugged, "Well, I suppose I should go get started on that maths homework I've been putting off all week."  
  
"How timely." Relena muttered as she herself followed behind Quatre and Dorothy.  
  
Slowing down, Relena realised just how thoroughly empty and how inertly quiet the gymnasium had all of a sudden gotten.  
  
As if on cue, Heero's voice interrupted her exit. "Relena, have you got a moment?"  
  
Relena cringed as she thought of completely uncharacteristic responses, I've got more than a moment for you Heero. Any day! Shaking her head, Relena went with the mere nodding of her head, and a simple one worded syllable: "Yes."  
  
She turned back around. And there he stood. He was still thoroughly drenched in a slick coat of sweat, however it seemingly suited him. Her cheeks turned a warm rosy red as she thought of how not many people looked so good in sweat! There was no debating it; Heero looked good in sweat!  
  
"A challenge, perhaps?" He asked her.  
  
Interested, Relena quirked an eyebrow. "What sort of challenge?"  
  
Confusion unfolded into intrigue which unfolded into genuine acceptance. With the basketball held in his spread hand Heero inquired once again, "Up for a game, a challenge?"  
  
Finding that she couldn't decline Heero's challenge Relena raised her arms in pleasantly, "Why not? I'm probably going to lose against you, but why not?"  
  
Nodding Heero threw her the basketball.  
  
And a game of one on one that was much like the tango began. It was fast. It was unyielding. It was brilliant. It was theirs.  
  
*****  
  
"Come on Relena, you can do better than that!" Heero called as the ball rebounded off the edge of the hoop's rim for the umpteenth time since they'd started playing.  
  
From the other side of the keyhole Relena flushed. She stood aside as Heero dribbled the ball towards the hoop before pushing the ball up with his left hand, completing a perfectly timed lay-up.  
  
When Heero passed the basketball to Relena for her turn at the goal she shoved it back at him. He reeled backwards at the sheer forcefulness of the pass.  
  
"What?" He asked, not pissed but puzzled as always by her behaviour.  
  
He could hear muttering as Relena stalked away from the keyhole.  
  
"You didn't strike me as the type of person to give up so easily, Relena" Heero declared.  
  
Relena stopped in her tracks. She crouched down on the ground, tying up a shoe-lace that had come loose. "There," she said once she'd risen from the ground. "You should know by now that I never give up Heero. Never. My shoelace had come loose, that's all." She pointed to her now tightly laced red sneakers. They reminded Heero of a movie he'd seen when he was a child.  
  
"Like the shoes, Dorothy." Heero uttered.  
  
Relena flushed once again before retorting. "Like the hair Yuy. Looks spiffy."  
  
A grunt was Heero's method of response.  
  
Leaving all rationale at the three-point line the two began their contention once again. Heero had height, build, speed, skill and strength that outclassed Relena in the extremist sense possible. He could free- throw, lay-up, hook-shot, jump-shot, cross-over dribble and slam-dunk so precisely it was headachy to look at. "I told you I'd lose," She muttered as he once again made a successful and effortless jump shot.  
  
"You're not even trying." He verbally shot back at her before pushing back sweaty mussed hair from his forehead.  
  
"Very well then."  
  
Relena bent slightly down while readying the basketball for a shot at the hoop. Extending her arms she flicked the ball upwards and towards the goal. Before the ball fell through the hoop's net, Relena knew with complete certainty that she'd finally gotten a goal. The shot had been clean and correct and most importantly concentrated.  
  
A dull thud as the basketball fell through the hoop's net marked her feat. Heero caught the ball as it rebounded off the court's surface. He started to aim for another shot but Relena stopped him before he flicked the ball upwards. "That's enough Heero."  
  
Wordlessly, Heero dropped the ball. Relena started for the gymnasium's entrance.  
  
"Good game Relena."  
  
Relena turned back to face Heero. "It was, wasn't it," she half-smiled. "Why didn't you play like that before?"  
  
Heero pushed his sweat-drenched dark hair off of his face, for once not hiding his face, but still shading his emotions. "Because I didn't want to."  
  
She refrained from asking him why, and instead collectively heaved, hunched over and attempting to catch her breath. Looking up she beamed one of her more relaxed smiles at him, "And now you know why I skip gym class all the time."  
  
Heero half-grinned. Smiling at such a lame crack was beyond him, but acknowledging the joviality of the situation wasn't. "You should come to class more often. The class has been split into volleyball teams. There's going to be a playoff next week."  
  
"No way." Relena moaned. "Don't get me started. Volleyball's a bigger nightmare than basketball!"  
  
Heero nodded, grabbing his sweater from the court side bench before pulling it on, much to Relena's disdain.  
  
Walking in a comfortable silence out of the gym, Relena silently appreciated the quietness of their stroll. There were only ever so many words spoken between herself and Heero and there had never been the pressure to speak for a long extensive period of time. He seemed to enjoy the stillness while she anticipated the quiet. Before heading in separate directions for their own dorms, Relena called to him, "You make the quiet comfortable Heero."  
  
Walking away Relena completely missed the stunned look on Heero's face.  
  
TBC  
  
*Augury was a form of bird-watching in the time of Ancient Rome. It was used as a means of interpreting signs from the gods.  
  
**Haruspicy is the inspection of an animal's entrails. This was another way of interpreting signs from the gods in Ancient times.  
  
Feedback is as always, appreciated.  
  
Jooles 


End file.
